A translator of * * * and the country. Plato, an ancient Greek thinker. * * * Ten volumes. This book expounds his thought, morality, politics and education theory, and discusses the nature, essence and social function of literature and art.
Plato believes that democracy is the low-level form of state system, and nobility and state are the ideal systems to consolidate the rule of slave owners. In the Republic, free citizens are divided into three levels except slaves: those with "wisdom" (philosophers) rule everything; "Brave" people (soldiers) defend the country; People engaged in labor production (farmers, craftsmen) take abstinence as "virtue" In order to consolidate and strengthen the strength of the first two grades, we advocate strict education and training for them Music and literature are the starting points of education. So Plato was extremely dissatisfied with the popular literature education at that time.
First, check the contents of the literature. He found that Homer and tragic poets described gods and heroes as full of faults, arguing with each other, cheating, framing, coveting pleasure, loving money and fearing death, and crying when encountering disasters. This example can never teach young people the virtues of sincerity, courage, calmness and gentleness.
Secondly, check the literary form. He said that there are only three ways to imitate literature and art: one is to use direct narration, such as tragedy and comedy; The second is to use indirect narrative completely, such as fu; The third is the mixture of the two, such as epic and other narrative poems. He thinks the second one is the best; The worst part is drama. Defenders should "devote themselves to defending the freedom of the country" and "should not imitate other things"; Imitating bad people to do bad things, habits become natural, and personality will inevitably turn into inferiority.
As for music, Plato divided it into three parts: lyrics, music and rhythm. He believed that music and rhythm should make lyrics obey, and lyrics should not adapt to music and rhythm. The lyrics are literature. There were Lydia, Ionian, dorris and Freudian tunes. The first two are soft and weak; The latter two are serious and gorgeous. In terms of training defenders, only the latter two are adopted. Rhythm refers to the fluctuation of sound length. Plato asked it to be simple, brave, calm, clear-headed and temperate.
From Plato's musical rhythm to general artistic beauty and ugliness. It is believed that beauty depends on whether the rhythm of music is harmonious and symmetrical; Whether it is harmonious or not depends on its spiritual quality. Therefore, art is the expression of individuality. Art not only expresses individuality, but also affects individuality, so it should be seriously considered in an ideal country. He believes that art should not only be beautiful, but also be unified with truth, goodness and beauty. Not only for the production of * * *, but also useful for the country. Plato thinks that literature and art are part of politics. He wants to create an environment in which people are unconsciously cultivated, not only knowing how to love beauty, but also "melting beauty into the soul" to form a perfect character.
However, there are profound contradictions in Plato's thought about the relationship between literature and reality. In his view, the objective world that people usually understand is not the real world, only the world of ideas is the real world, and the objective real world is just a copy of the world of ideas. Take himself as an example, there are three kinds of beds: the first is the concept that a bed is a bed; Secondly, the carpenter made a personalized bed according to the concept of bed; The third is the bed painted by the painter imitating individual beds. Of these three kinds of beds, only the concept of bed, that is, the concept or law that bed is a bed, is eternal, so it is true. Although carpenters make personalized beds according to the concept of beds, they only imitate some aspects of the concept of beds, which are limited by time, space, materials and uses. A bed is different from a bed. This kind of bed is neither eternal nor universal, so it is not real, but just a "copy" or "illusion". As for the bed painted by the painter, although it is based on the carpenter's bed, it is even more unreal because it only looks at the shape of the bed from a certain angle, not the entity of the bed. It can only be regarded as "copywriting", "shadow shadow" and "separated from the truth by three layers", which is of little value to the truth.
Plato's view of literature and art is based on idealism, but it is also subject to his political needs of establishing a city-state ideal country. He opposes all literature and art that is not conducive to maintaining theocracy and slave owners' rule. He criticized the literature and art of the Greek Democrats at that time as "sacrilegious", "cultivating and developing the inferior part of human nature and destroying the rational part", which was not conducive to the rule of the city-state. In order to educate the people to respect God and defend the country, he believes that "all poems are not allowed to enter the country except those that praise God and praise good people." Marx pointed out: "In Plato's utopia. Division of labor is said to be the constituent principle of this country. At this point, his utopia is only the idealization of the Egyptian caste system in Athens. "
Plato's literary view was criticized by Aristotle, but its influence is still far-reaching. Prouddin established Neo-Platonism from his point of view. And in the Middle Ages, it further developed into Christian theological idealism.