Abstract:

One of the important concepts of aesthetics is mimesis which we encounter in Greeks and it has a wide usage for them; that is to say, it does not come up only in a pure aesthetic content. Mimesis and mimetic activities, such as poetry, have been made an important philosophical argument by Plato, which is same for many subjects. Because for Plato many things are related to mimesis, words, laws, etc. have somehow a relation with mimesis. Even mimesis is about character; for example, poetry, as a mimetic activity, possesses a power affects and shapes the character of a person. For this reason, Plato thinks that poetry should be used for a good education in Republic Book 2 and 3; but then in 10th Book, the poets are expelled from the ideal city. But Plato’s exile of poets does not mean that he sees mimetic activities worthless; for Plato's dialogues are also a kind of mimetic activity, in which Plato confronts us as a poet, and as a philosopher living in the sensory world, interacts with reality within sensory activities. Plato embodies his philosophy with this tense relationship, and in this philosophy, he tries to bring mimesis into an essential relation with truth and the forms of the ideal world. The problem for him, then, is not about mimesis and mimetic activities, rather not having a virtue, knowledge, which will really connect mimesis with truth. People can handle mimesis in good and bad ways, healing and sick ways. Plato’s arguments on mimesis are particularly opposed in this dual relationship.

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