Chapter 6 - Play vs. Mimesis in Aristotle’s Aesthetics

Summary

Aristotle’s demotion of play explains why play can claim only a marginal space in Aristotle’s aesthetic thought. If Aristotle were to identify the pleasures of art with the pleasures of play, art too would be dragged down into the realms of the frivolous. For this reason, he must find another explanation for art’s pleasures. Scholars may dispute the significance of mimesis for Aristotle’s ideas about art, but the key point focused on in this chapter is his notion of mimetic “learning”. If it is possible to “learn” from any sort of mimesis—not just paintings and sculptures but maps and medical models—and that “learning” is the source of mimetic pleasure, what separates these non-artistic mimēseis (maps, medical models) from the artistic ones (paintings, sculptures)? There is no easy way for Aristotle to make this distinction, and this may help to explain why Plato, who also recognized the intrinisic pleasures of learning, sought another pleasure source. As if lending support to Plato’s later views on play, those scholars who wish to make mimesis the centerpiece of Aristotle’s aesthetics often have a way of smuggling play back into the discussion.