Disciple of Socrates.
Not a critic of literature.
Observations are not in a single work.
Most of his philosophy is discussed in his great work, Dialogues in the form of discussion.
Entire work is discussed in the form of question and answers, the chief is Socrates.
His philosophy
Theory of Ideas: According to him, things are firstly conceived in the form of ideas. It means, idea is the basic thing.
Theory of Physical world: Whatever we see in the world is the embodiment of that idea. Everything comes in the form of idea. This idea manifests in the physical reality.
e.g. We see a tree in surrounding. That tree must be in the form of idea first. The tree that we can see in the physical world is the manifestation of that idea of tree.
The tree that we can see is the one step removed from the reality. Physical world is one step away from idea. Now, when poet, sculptor, painter make that tree in the art, then that piece of art is twice removed from the reality.
Idea---------Physical world---------Art
1 step 2 step
As we can see the piece of art is twice removed from reality. The copy is always imperfect. The copies are partial images. They take men away from reality. Since, it is away from reality, therefore literature doesn't have accountability for Plato.
To be continued...
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