He listed several crimes committed by poets and painters:
First, the poet is just an imitator. He only gets images and never grasps the truth. Second, his works are of little value to truth; Third, he caters to the inferiority of human nature; Fourthly, he cultivated and developed the evil part of human nature and destroyed the rational part.
Judging from the crimes stated by Plato, he imagined an ideal country with political civilization. There is no doubt that in this country, reason is respected and truth is supreme. Poetry, painting or art are euphoric and emotional and should be excluded. In Plato's words, "reason forced us to expel her." Therefore, Plato opposed rationality and sensibility. As a result, Plato wanted to expel the poet.
In fact, Plato is also contradictory:
First of all, on the one hand, he wants to drive the poet out of utopia. On the other hand, he added: "All poems are not allowed to enter the country except those that praise God and good people." In other words, not all poems are not allowed to enter utopia, as long as they are good.
2. "We always use physical exercise and music to cultivate our minds" (to educate people). It seems that Plato regarded perceptual music as an important way to shape people's minds.
Third, all Plato's philosophical works are written in dialogues (except Socrates' defense). Isn't this dialogue the style used by his contemporaries? In other words, Plato was writing in a dramatic or literary or artistic way. So what do future generations think of Plato? Sidney, an intelligent, knowledgeable and untimely English poet in the Renaissance, said: "Anyone who studies Plato well will find that although the content and strength of his works are philosophical, their appearance and beauty depend most on poetry."
/kloc-Shelley, a great English poet in the 0/9th century, said: "Plato is essentially a poet-his image is true and magnificent, and his language is full of melody, reaching the strongest realm that people can imagine." This is probably an unexpected evaluation of Plato. The root of Plato's mistake lies in his opposition between sensibility and reason. Both sensibility and rationality exist in human innate cultural inheritance and acquired cultural acquisition. We can't object to anything we respect.