The poet as an illusion maker: Plato's critique of poetic mimeisis

Abstract

This article analyzes Plato's critique of the artistic activity of classical Greek poets, especially Homer and Hesiod, from an interdisciplinary approach between philosophy and aesthetics. Supported by a bibliographic research carried out in Dialogues such as The Banquet, The Republic, The Laws and Critias, as well as commentators specialized in Platonic works, we present the procedures involved in poetic mimesis, as they are described in the works cited. Finally, we conclude that the central problem that Plato sees in poetry is its potential to generate, at the level of the subject, "illusion" to the extent that the various mimetic processes involved would establish such a confusion between reality and discourse, between the "same" and the "other" that the line that divides these poles tends to disappear, which poses questions with significant ethical ramifications.