Plato and Aristotle on Poetry and Tragedy

Plato’s distrust of poetry in The Republic is closely tied to his theory of:

• Empiricism

• Forms (Ideas)

• Stoicism

• Atomism

Plato considers the poet’s knowledge to be:

• Inferior to that of craftsmen

• Superior to that of philosophers

• Equal to that of politicians

• Equivalent to divine omniscience

The “mimesis” Plato criticizes in poetry refers primarily to:

• Creative invention beyond truth

• Exact replication of reality

• Imitation of imitation twice removed from reality

• Musical composition based on myths

According to Plato, inspiration is:

• A conscious rhetorical choice

• unreliable, hence harmful

• A product of military discipline

• The result of democratic debate

As per Aristotle, tragedy should be...

• overstimulating, lucid and practical

• mythical, historical and fictional

• determined, redeeming and cathartic

• serious, complete and of a certain magnitude

Aristotle uses the term mythos to mean:

• An unrealistic fantasy

• The arrangement of incidents (plot)

• A religious allegory

• An epic backstory

For Aristotle, the ideal tragic hero should be:

• Utterly virtuous and flawless

• Entirely villainous

• Morally average but prone to error

• A supernatural being

Aristotle’s concept of peripeteia involves:

• The recognition of identity

• A reversal of fortune

• A moral lecture

• A supernatural warning

In Poetics, Aristotle considers opsis (spectacle):

• The most important element of tragedy

• A powerful but least artistic element

• Equivalent to plot structure

• The central cause of catharsis

Where Plato sees poetry as a danger to rational governance, Aristotle sees tragedy as:

• A necessary evil

• A harmless diversion

• A disciplined form of mimesis that can educate emotions

• A form of political satire