Discuss about the Philosophy for the Republic and Ion Projects.
Plato, mostly in his book The Republic and Ion projects a very strict picture of drama and theater. Plato talks about rejecting poets and dramatists. Plato says that theater is destructive for the young minds as it is derived out of emotion and feelings. It creates a distraction. Since a drama does not portray the truth, it perpetuates lies. Moreover, the theater is hubris as dramatists disrespect gods and portray them in an immoral way. Plato laid his emphasis on morality and the moral standards of the Greeks. Plato is completely against the strictures of poetry. In fact, Plato considers poetry and drama as an irrational activity. Poets are mere imitators, and their work is thrice removed from the ultimate reality. A dramatist can never portray the truth as he is unaware of it. Plato says that the audience must learn moralistic attitudes from the theater. Mostly, theater promotes and presents undesirable passions which are unethical. Theatre has no pragmatism and has no educational value (Gentile, 2013).
On the other hand, Aristotle says that poetry or drama is mimesis and should be considered an art. According to Aristotle, the fundamental element of human nature is imitation. People learn through imitation, and they take pleasure in doing so. Aristotle, contrasting Plato’s ideas says that poets or dramatists portray representations of human lives and not the exact life. Theatre is a place where one seeks pleasure. It is not a school where one would teach people morality. Theatre is, in fact, a place where people recognize lives and enjoy the similarities. According to him, the end of drama is not morality but pleasure. Such pleasure derived from drama is superior to other forms of pleasure as it imparts civic morality (Altman, 2012).
In the present day, a severe amount of violence is portrayed in film and television. Though it is seen as detrimental to the society, the violence depicted is justified by Aristotle's theory of catharsis. Catharsis means purging or cleansing. Aristotle says that tragic plays arouses catharsis and thus have a purgative effect. Adverse feelings within a person are purged and hence are beneficial for the individual and the society as a whole. Violence in films and television thus provide humans an outlet to purge themselves and kill their emotions related to violence. Violence in the movies and television kills the primal urge in people to kill or indulge in violent activities. Since one cannot vent one's anger on the individuals in society, films, and television provide a platform to vent out one's aggressive emotions and anger (Gentile, 2013). Though people learn from movies, it is not necessary that everyone who watches violent cinema becomes violence. This can be compared to the analogy of smoking. Smoking kills and causes cancer. But not every person who smokes suffers from cancer or is killed. Similarly, watching violent films may be detrimental for some, but not for everyone. It depends on the person who is watching it. An overdose of both cigarette and violent movies may prove to be fatal.
References
Altman, W. H. (2012). Plato the Teacher: the Crisis of the Republic.
Gentile, D. A. (2013). Catharsis and media violence: A conceptual analysis.Societies, 3(4), 491-510.
