"In 388 B.C. Plato urged the city fathers of Athens to exile all poets and storytellers. They are a threat to society, he argued. Writers deal with ideas, but no in the open, rational manner of philosophers. Instead, they conceal their ideas inside the seductive emotion of art. Yet felt ideas, as Plato pointed out, are ideas nonetheless. Every effective story sends a charged idea out to us, in effect compelling the idea into us, so that we must believe. In fact, the persuasive power of a story is so great that we may believe its meaning even if we find it morally repellent. Storytellers, Plato insisted, are dangerous people. He was right" (McKee, 1997, p. 129-130).
Note: Begin paper/article with this story of Plato and Poets (1st paragraph). 2nd paragraph on Aristotle.
This is a blog about my teaching, research and service with some occasional personal comments thrown in.
These are my notes on a variety of topics. If you want to follow my blog posts on a specific topic, then see the Table of Contents in the right-hand column. While I try to work in the realm of facts, logic and moral absolutes, if there are any opinions expressed here, they are my own. -WilliamHartPhD
Friday, January 2, 2009
Plato and the Power of Poets
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