Images of Excellence Plato's Critique of the Arts [Paperback]

This original new book argues for a reassessment of Plato's challenge to the arts. Plato was the first great figure in Western philosophy to assess the value of the arts; he argued in theRepublicthat traditionally accepted forms of poetry, drama, and music are unsound. While this view has been widely rejected, Janaway argues that Plato's hostile case is a more coherent and profound challenge to the arts than has sometimes been supposed. Denying that Plato advocates good art in any modern sense, Janaway seeks both to understand Plato's critique in the context of his own philosophy and to locate him in today's philosophy of art, showing how issues in aesthetics arise from responses to his charges.

Introduction
1. Rhapsody
2. Arts, Crafts, and the Production of Pleasure
3. The Fine and the Beautiful
4. The Formation of Character
5.Mimesis
6. Against Mimetic Poetry
7. Myth, Madness, Pleasure, and Play
8. Plato and the Philosophy of Art
Bibliography
Glossary
Indexes

Janaway strikes a fine balance between lucid exposition of the texts, explanation of standard and alternative views and relevant aesthetic theory, and his own interpretations, which grow out of this carefully cultivated ground....This is a stimulating, enlightening, highly intelligent and well written book. --Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Janaway's study of Plato's critique of the arts is a timely and readable analysis of a notoriously complex subject. --Classical World