Plato believed in two worlds. The physical world in which we live contains everything detectable by the senses. The mental world was made up of perfect mental blueprints of how things in the physical world should be. For example, in the physical world, there was no perfect circle. Some may seem perfect, but they're not exactly liek the mental blueprint of a circle. Plato said that the senses deceive. To counteract this deception, the use of calculations, measurements and weight was required. The perfect mental blueprint of a circle was an equation.
Plato beleived that art was not useful and didn't reveal any truth. He said that art was "an inferior child born of inferior parents." What he meant was that art was a third hand copy. A craftsman would make an object, say a bed, based on the idea of the perfect bed (the blueprint). The artist would then try to recreate the craftsman's bed. His recreation was a copy of a copy. Plato believed that art was unimportant and useless because of this.
But despite his belief, the art of 5th century Greece still held onto the concept of the Ideal. For example, an artist was asked to paint the perfect picture of the goddess Aphrodite. He went to a city that was well known fo rits beautiful women, but could not find a suitable model. He then chose five women to model for him, using the (almost) perfect head of one, the perfect shoulders of another, and so on. he took the most perfect parts of the most beautiful women to make the ideal image of the goddess. Another example was the Doryphorus by Polykleitos, made in 450 BC. The statue was of a warrior with his ideal body. The Ideal was closely achieved through this sculpture, as one can see, because it was not a portrait or a likeness.
The Ideal is similarly shown in the literature of the 5th century Greeks. Plato believed that people should strive to discover the truth; he believed in the persuit of knowledge. Oedipus the King by Sophocles showed Oedipus seeking out the truth, even though others around him told him not to. When Tiresius told Oedipus the truth, he did not believe it. Plato said that the truth should not be accepted from someone, but that it should be sought out by the individual. That is just what Oedipus did, until the truth was found.
Not only was the concept of the Ideal evident in the art and literature of the 5th century, the Ideal was also applied to the government. Plato believed that there were three parts to a person: a mind, a soul, and a body. He believed there was a balance between the three that allowed a person to function. The mind would give an order, the sould would enforce the order, and the body would carry the order out. Plato believed that the ideal government should work the same way. He believed that in a society, there were people like the mind, who thought reasoning was most important, people like the soul, who were courageous and brave, and people like the body, who gave in to the needs of that body. He believed the mind people, called guardians, should be the leaders of society, while the auxiliaries, the soul people, were the soldiers and police. The body people, called producers, would be workers, such as carpenters or craftsmen. Just as a person needs all three, a mind, body and soul, to function, a government must have guardians, auxiliaries and producers in order to function.
Today, the concept of the Ideal doesn't appeal to everyone. Mr. Coleman, with his materialistic ways, opposes the whole idea. The idea of a mental world full of blueprints for the physical world may clash with the idea that everything is caused by something. I don't agree or disagree with either side. I believe both to be good explinations for what happens in the world, but I can't really be too sure that either is totally correct.
Despite Plato's efforts to discourage art and literature, the concept of the Ideal appeare in the two, and in Greek government. Today, the subject is still debatable.
Quick Comment: this essay did specifically ask for my opinion, and some discussion of why our teachers held their opinions...Mr. Coleman was our 10th grade History teacher...i was actually proud of this one...