Socrates Claims That Artists Are Not True Maker In Plato's Republic
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1. In Plato’s Republic, Socrates’s claims that artists are not true “makers.” He elaborates on this by presenting what makes one a true “maker” of a subject. In order to do this, he gives the example of three different types of beds: “The first is in nature a bed [the form]…we’d say that a god makes it…the second is the work of the carpenter [physical form]…and the third is the one the painter makes [the imitative form]”. Socrates goes on to say that the god is the “maker” of the bed and even the carpenter can be classified as a “maker” because he also makes the bed and understands it. However, the artist does not make the bed. He simply imitates what the carpenter has made through the appearance of the object and disregards the reality of it. The image that the artist presents is only one small portion of the whole picture.…show more content… He proves this by pointing out that the artist does not fully understand the object like the carpenter or the god does. The artist does not make the object and does not understand which features make the object good or bad. This lack of understanding leads to deception. The deception takes hold because there is a certain trust that is given to the artist by the public. For instance, say there are two men of the same height, who stand at different distances from a viewer; the one who is farthest appears smaller. He is not smaller, but that is just how he looks. Now the artist steps in, he draws them as they appear and not as they appear in reality (11). The artist does not paint that the two men are roughly the same size, but instead paints them, as they appear (the further man