Art aesthetic or political, G. Lessing between Plato and Aristotle

Abstract

The article primarily analyzes the experience of ancient Greece in the works of Plato and Aristotle on the state, and initially civic, censorship of works of art, as well as the role of sensory perception, image, social ideal, integrity of shaping human consciousness on the way of its existence in society. The article shows two main tendencies regarding the primacy or secondary of artistic education in the state. The theoretical understanding of the role of figurative sensuality in the construction of the consciousness of the people, which was made by G. Lessing in the analysis of the boundaries between the art of sculpture and poetry, is considered.Exploring the ways of image creation in art, he is forced to pay attention not only to the purely aesthetic aspects of the work of art, but also to take a clear position on the normativity of image creation. Because he analyzes art not for personal interest, but because he understands primarily the educational, pedagogical function of art for the formation of cultural human consciousness. As a conclusion, we have a generalization in the form of sensuality, image, thinking in relation to the individual, as well as experience, art, science in relation to the formation of culture in general, as social forms of activity of individuals. Due to the unevenness of the composition of society itself, the deepening of the division of labor in it, we have also fragmentation, diversity of sensuality, imagery of thinking in different layers of society, which leads to the emergence of institutions of censorship, as an external law in relation to citizens. This problem allows us to reveal the social essence of the sensuality of the individual, and censorship - as an attempt of external retention of the integrity of the worldview of the individual within the state.