ENTRY 2: PARAPHRASING

1. Aristotle on the other hand, believed that imitation involves human experience and in that sense he saw a role for the arts. According to Aristotle, the artist has the freedom to imitate aspects of nature, but he does insist on the unity of form (formal and structural qualities). Aristotle explains form in terms of its “causes” by which he means any external factor (apart from “matter”’) that explains why something is the way it is, and what function it can perform. In short, form is that which causes something to be the thing it is. So whereas Plato’s form relates to Ideal forms, Aristotle relates form to something inherent in the object.
Imitation and Beauty

Answer:

         Imitation, according to Aristotle, involves human experience and has a role for arts. For him, the artist has the freedom to imitate the aspects of nature, but still insist on the unity of the form. Aristotle explains that a form becomes what it is, and what factors it can perform because of the external factors it exhibits.  In short, form is that which causes something to be the thing it is. So, whereas Plato's form relates to ideal forms, Aristotle relates form to something inherent in the object.

2. Another difference between Plato and Aristotle is the way they discuss imitation in relationship to beauty. For Plato, beauty is an idea, something abstract that is revealed in the order of the natural world. Hence the importance he placed on mathematics as the key to understanding the natural world. For Aristotle, beauty is something real, it is also a function of form, it is not abstract as for Plato, but it is grounded in an object. In other words, it is bound to a context.

Answer:

      Another difference between Plato and Aristotle is the way they discuss imitation in relationship to beauty. Beauty, according to Plato, is an idea and something abstract that is revealed in the ordinary order of the natural world. Therefore, the importance for him is placed on mathematics as the key to understand the world. While beauty, for Aristotle, is something real and a function of form and not abstract but it is grounded in a specific object. Particularly, it is adjoin to the context.