The Platonic Theory of Inspiration

THE PLATONIC THEORY OF INSPIRATION T HIS essay makes no attempt to locate, describe or evaluate an aesthetic along Platonic lines. Many qualified men have done this adequately-in fact, exceedingly well, considering that they have generally read an integrated and extensive aesthetic where there were, at most, but indications from Plato himself. The contributions made by Plato towards an aesthetic are three-fold. He suggestively treated (1) the character or make-up of art, (fl) its moral consequences and (3) the inspiration of art. It is well known that for Plato artistic production is but an imitation of an imitation, a product thriceremoved from reality. From this it is easy to see how and why the censorship of Homer and all other poets came about in the tenth book of the Republic. The core of this development, the premise underlying the logic of Plato's dicta, is to be found in the theory of inspiration. This essay reports what Plato said about this last element of a complete aesthetic: the nature of inspiration. Of the three main topics of aesthetic importance in Plato, it has remained the least commented upon. There are two probable reasons for past neglect of the theory 'Of inspiration. In the first place, the theory had not been accorded a sufficient importance ; and secondly, there is very little available material from Plato himself with which to work. The basic issues in this study are not what attitudes were adopted by Plato, but why; not what are the superficial reasons given for his attitudes, but what valid and more satisfactory explanations may be found and what more pertinent connections may be made with the more acceptable aspects of Platonic philosophy. The answers lie in the theory of inspiration. My approach to the subject is from the primary sources, 466 THE PLATONIC THEORY OF INSPIRATION 467 with some research in the Greek language to trace the literal and metaphorical usages of certain key words. All the textual references are to the Random House edition,1 following the Stephanus pagination. 1. FUNCTION OF INSPIRATION The function of a thing is the criterion of its usefulness. The function of the theory of inspiration should, in some adequate way, explain Plato's statements about it. Prima facie, of course, this theory serves to explain how artistic creation is possible. If all human endeavor were philosophic, then there could be no such question. If all human endeavor followed the logic of the Sophist or the systematic process of inquiry illustrated in the Theaetetus and the Parmenides~ then there would be no artistic creation possible, nor any problem concerning its method. But Plato fully realized that such was not the case; that productions which did not follow the long and careful and difficult path of intellectual inquiry and dialectic did come into being. It became a matter of some importance for him to account for their existence. It would be the easy thing simply to say that Plato refutes the validity of artistic creations: that one could successfully document Sully's thesis: In spite of his lofty theory of the origin and nature of beauty, Plato seems to have imperfectly appreciated the worth of art as an independent end in human life and culture. He found the end of art in imitation ... , but estimated the creative activity of art as a clever knack, a little higher in intellectual value than the tricks of a juggler. He tended to regard the effects of art as devoid of all serious value, and as promoting indolence and the supremacy of the sensual elements of human nature.2 In the sections that are to follow, Plato's own words on the subject of inspiration are brought together. They are few and 1 The Dialogues of Plato. Tr. Benjamin Jowett, 2 vols. (New York: Random House, 1987.) •James Sully. "Aesthetics," in the Encyclopaedia Brittanica. 9th ed. (Chicago: R. S. Peale Co., 1892.) 468 ARTHUR E. VASSILION not too specific; but they are very suggestive of things which do not quite enter into the strict survey of the area of inspira-·tion. It may be profitable, nevertheless, to correlate these suggestions into the evaluation of the theory of...