What struck me the most during the Plato reading was the emphasis on censorship towards the arts. I haven’t quite been able to get my thoughts together, but I’ll try.
I think art tells the truth about life. Artists of all types are the ones who ask the “what if” questions about life. Since we’re all so different, there are different methods of creativity to express our answers to those “what if” questions. When consuming content, we all have different “levels” that we can tolerate. When art is uncensored, everyone has the freedom to establish his or her own tolerance “level” and choose what kinds of art to consume. By limiting art in the way Socrates describes, he wants to limit not only the people’s expression, but the people’s consumption of art. Then, people who want to consume more content than what he’s offering are stymied and probably frustrated. Artists and consumers of art will want to know more and why they’re not allowed to know more. Ultimately, it’s about control. He doesn’t want people to ask “what if” about their world. Instead, he wants to tell them only want he wants them to hear. But to the artists and consumers of art, this will not be enough. Even under oppression, art speaks the truth. In the proposed Republic, eventually some type of art would come forth and tell the truth about their world. This is why he fears art and wants to control it.
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