The Idea of «Beauty» and the Norm of Taste Problem in Ancient Philosophy
The article presents a comparative analysis of the solutions proposed by ancient thinkers for one of the central issues of aesthetics and the philosophy of art relating to the norm of taste. In the grounds of the norm of taste problem lies the dilemma: is a certain something beautiful because we like it, or do we like it, on the contrary, because it is perfectly? In other words, «do artist create the Beauty or appear it within things?». This dilemma had different solutions in ancient philosophy. According to Plato and Aristotle the «Beauty» is not created by the artist, but appeared or exists within the «things», therefore the «norm of taste» must be unified. In contrast, Sophists claim the «Beauty» as created only, but not appeared, therefore, the «norm of taste» may be different and multiple. It leads to the conclusion that more heuristic in terms of aesthetics and the philosophy of art are Plato›s arguments about the idea of the «Beauty», and means the idea does not depend on our views (in contrast to Sophists› position), nor the «things» like art objects, the «Beauty» appears within these objects only but does not exists within (in contrast to Aristotle›s position).Plato›s views on the idea of the «Beauty» allow to not only classify the Art because unified the «Beauty» appears in one form or another for every genre, but establish unified foundation for the Art. Therefore, contemporary aesthetics continues to maintain an interest in the legacy of Plato.
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