Poetics: How does Aristotle refute Plato's charges against poetry?

As many allegations have been put on poets by Plato, Aristotle comes forward in defence of the poets. He agrees to the fact that art is an imitation of the real world imitated from ideal world which is further imitated from the world of Truth. But Aristotle says that art gives something more which is actually absent in the real world. It is not simply the imitation of the world but it is the imitation of selected events and characters in a coherent manner.

    For instance, Aristotle says that we all have the image of chair in our mind. It is a thing with four legs and two arms. It has a back to rest and seat to sit upon. Now, when an artist is told to imitate a chair, he will draw the chair as described above. But, he will further add some shades, or colours to the image. The shades or the colour added to the chair is the creativity. Hence, Aristotle says that Literature is an imitation with creativity.

           Plato now raises the issue that literature is not preaching to the public as it should have been its core idea. But according to Aristotle, the core idea of writing literature is to amuse or rather give some aesthetic pleasures to the readers. Moreover, it is not the duty of literature to preach lessons or give some moral thoughts. Literature is an art and hence, it has to be judged with the artistic parameters.

     Plato also fears that students may loose the mental ability of reasoning and start being more emotional if they were taught poetry. But Aristotle through the theory of ‘Catharsis’  proves that people tend to clear excess emotional feelings in them after reading poetry rather than becoming more emotional. When people read a work, they sometimes tend to become more emotional and start crying. When they undergo this process, they cleanse off the excess of emotions in them. This therefore gives them a relief and further makes them feel more comfortable.

      The main point that Plato forgot while making his arguments is that Literature is a subject which is quite different from Philosophy. The main object of Philosophy is to give some philosophical views which might also preach to people. But, it is not fare to expect the same from literature. Literature has its own criteria and canons from where the works have to be judged. If we reject a song just because it is not a painting and we reject a painting just because it does not sing, it is simply ridiculous. Hence, all the arguments of Plato were futile.