Aristotle systematically expounded the theory of representative theory. He believes that imitation is the innate nature of human beings, and human beings can have fun in artistic activities through imitation, thus producing works of art.
Artistic imitation also produces different artistic types due to different media, different objects and different ways, such as sculpture, poetry and tragedy. He also believes that art imitation can understand the essence of things from the outside to the inside through generalization, induction and refinement, so art has important cognitive functions.
Representative theory
Representative theory is an early theory of art origin, which holds that art originated from the destruction of things existing in nature or society by human beings. It assumes that human beings have imitation instinct, and from this instinct, they create art by imitating objects or phenomena. The ancient Greek philosophers Heraclitus, democritus, Socrates and Aristotle all discussed the representative theory.
The representative theory reflects the ancient people's understanding and transformation of the creative activities of nature through observation and simulation, including simple materialism.
Reference to the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia-Aristotle