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 this conversation the “beds in the world” refer to the actual form of a bed in reality be it created by god or a carpenter. The idea of a bed refers to the fact that god, maker of all things, made the ideal bed and only one. Where in turn created the idea of the bed. The carpenter can create many beds with the idea of the bed, but it will never be an ideal bed. We can relate this idea to how technology is used. For example, Alexander Graham Bell created the telephone. He made it possible for people to communicate by voice over long distances. He made a telephone that he used, and that phone is looked at as the very first of its kind. That physical object then became an idea that many other people took and improved upon it. the idea of that first phone still remains even after the physical object itself will eventually be gone.
Art would be categorized as imitation of the ideal bed. Artists would use physical means such as words or paint to show a different reality, but one we can see in this current one. Painters have paint, while poets have words. This holds true to modern day as well. Directors use still frames shown in succession to show people movies, where different kinds of worlds created by one or more person can be seen in this reality. Music creates tones that elicit emotion, and have lyrics that form a story or convey messages. These mediums can use the physical aspects of this world to mimic realities of the past or ones that do not even exist.
This is where art can become deceptive. Plato believes that if a simple minded person can believe that, say a painting of a wolf, was the real thing then art is deceitful. I agree with this notion, and people don’t even have to be simple minded. A great modern example I love is the movie The Blair Witch project. The marketing was genius when they advertised the movie, because it made everyone believe it was a real story of some college students getting lost in a forest. The people who made it had a great opportunity since the genre of “found footage” wasn’t really established yet. They used that to their advantage and were able to trick people into believing the film, that was fiction, was a real event.
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Monkeys are sick 