The notion of mimesis in Plato’s philosophy: image and therapy between arts and ethics

Abstract

The notion of mimesis is one of the most complex in the platonic philosophy. For Plato, this notion makes different dimensions of the human soul come into play and links them to a certain reflective structure that ocurrs between them and the thing in which they are projected, as for reproducing it. Therefore, the quandary of the mimesis reaches a capital importance both in the sphere of arts and morality, as well as a big importance in the field of ontology and psychology. Under such conception, the author in question draws a sort of ontology of the image, which stains its relationship with the theory of the ideas. Accordingly, in the present analysis we will reflect on the different kinds of mimesis that exist, but more specifically on the eikástica sense of mimesis. This sense will allow us to assess its therapeutic function, facet that has frequently gone unnoticed within the critics to the platonic conception of the mimetic activity. At the same time, the purpose of the analysis will be to raise a hermeneutic conception of philosophy in which the cathartic function of comprehension will come first.