The Republic: Book X

Blog Prompt 5:

What is the difference between “beds in the world” and “the idea of a bed?” Where does “art” fit into his hierarchical scheme of reality? Plato criticizes art for being “deceptive.” How does art deceive us, according to Plato? Do you agree with this criticism?

In The Republic: Book X, Plato implies that there is a difference between the “beds in the world” and “the idea of a bed”. He states that the idea of a bed is original concept of God’s and the “beds in the world” are individual’s interpretation of the original idea. He brings forth a third phenomenon, which is the painter.

“Beds, then, are of three kinds, and there are three artists who superintend them: God, the maker of the bed, and the painter”

Base off of the excerpt above, Plato has God at the top of the hierarchy, followed by the maker of the bed and lastly, the painter. God role is creator of the idea of the bed. The carpenter which is also be refer to as the “maker” took God’s idea of the bed and recreated the form of the bed. The painter is viewed as an imitator as they are only able to replicate the form of the bed presented by the carpenter.

“He is thrice removed from the king and from the truth.”

“Then the imitator, I said, is a long way off the truth.”

Above, are two examples in which Plato criticizes that the painter as being far off from reality. Plato’s state to claim is that if the painter is imitating an image of what the carpenter “maker” made then thy have low understanding of reality and may have been deceived by other imitators. He goes on to say that a real artist should be seeking realities and not imitations. To sum it up, Plato believes the painter as being deceptive, because they are recreating an image of something that marker has copied from God’s idea. If the marker could not make the God’s original concept of a bed down to God’s exact specification, then the carpenter surely could not replicate it as they are going off of the carpenters interpretation of the bed.

I do agree with Plato’s philosophy as their are original ideas, recreations and imitations. However, I see a hole in Plato’s philosophy and it just really comes your personal beliefs on whether you believe in God. If God didn’t create the original idea then who did. In this case, I believe it would have to be the maker. For example, if a maker created a new invention from an original idea, the credit of the new invention would be attributed to the maker.

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