柏拉图和亚里士多德诗歌学说中Imitation的区别（全英论文）.doc

Comparative Study of Imitation between Plato and Aristotle Abstract: As the greatest philosophers in ancient Greece, Plato and Aristotle all have distinct opinions on poetry about imitation. This paper mainly discusses the differences of their opinions from the angles of theology, epistemology and morality, and shortly introduces the historical significance of Aristotle’s Poetics. Key words: Plato; Aristotle; Imitation; Poetics I. A Brief Introduction Plato and Aristotle both played very important roles in the Art history of ancient Greece. The questions they discussed about poetry formed the original foundation of the western poetics theoretical system. Their rich poetic aesthetic thoughts in the study of literary theory have always been the focus of academic discussion. Plato’s idea of poetry was mainly expressed in his famous work——Republic. He mainly focused on three themes: sources of inspiration of the poets, imitation in poems and the utility of poems. His opinion related a lot to his philosophical thoughts. And he was the first one who dissertated on the theory of poem from the angles of aesthetics and education. Aristotle has written Poetics to discuss the theory of poetry. As he was the student of Plato, he inherited and carried forward the theory of Plato on poetry. And Poetics became the classic in the history of Western literary theory. Overall, the two hold very different attitudes towards poets and poetry, as a result of their different thoughts. This paper mainly focuses on the comparison of Plato and Aristotle’s theories of imitation on poetry, and explains the historical significance of Aristotle’s Poetics at the last part. II. Comparison of the theory of Imitation between Plato and Aristotle Although Plato and Aristotle were teacher and student, they disagreed profoundly about the value of poetry in human society. However, their different notions of poetry were based upon the same basic assumption: poetry is a form of imitation. What’s more, the