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    Actions are the true subjects of poetry. — Carmelics
    Home/Aesthetics
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    Supports→Poetry can represent a body only by describing an action in which the body is made, used, or otherwise involved.

    Actions are the true subjects of poetry.

    Aesthetics
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Poetry represents elements in succession over time.
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    • 2.Actions are temporal, successive events.
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    • 3.An art form's true subjects are those things whose nature matches the art form's mode of representation.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Poetry can represent states of mind, emotions, and lyrical experience that have no inherent narrative or temporal structure.
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    • 2.Lyric poetry achieves its highest effects precisely when it arrests temporal succession in favor of concentrated feeling or contemplation.
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    • 3.If an art form's true subjects must match its mode of representation, lyric poetry's existence refutes the claim that temporality uniquely defines poetry's subject matter.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Lessing's own argument in the Laocoon concedes that poetry can depict bodies and spatial properties through the device of narrating actions that reveal them over time.
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    • 2.If poetry successfully represents spatial objects by converting them into temporal sequences, then actions are a representational medium for poetry, not its privileged subject matter.
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    • 3.A medium of representation cannot simultaneously be the true subject of that representation without collapsing the distinction between form and content.
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    Aesthetics

    Related

    A body as a static spatial object cannot be directly rendered through temporal s...A medium of representation cannot simultaneously be the true subject of that rep...Actions are temporal, successive events.An art form's true subjects are those things whose nature matches the art form's...
    +8 moreShow less
    If an art form's true subjects must match its mode of representation, lyric poet...If poetry successfully represents spatial objects by converting them into tempor...Lessing's own argument in the Laocoon concedes that poetry can depict bodies and...Lyric poetry achieves its highest effects precisely when it arrests temporal suc...Poetry can represent a body only by describing an action in which the body is ma...Poetry can represent states of mind, emotions, and lyrical experience that have ...Poetry represents elements in succession over time.Poetry represents elements in temporal succession, not spatial coexistence.

    Similar

    Because poetry is unconstrained by the natural properties of its signs...80%The essence of poetry lies in its capacity to capture and communicate ...77%An art form's true subjects are those things whose nature matches the ...76%The main ultimate purpose of poetry is to please by means of a sensibl...75%

    Source

    AI-extracted
    SEP: aesthetics-18th-german
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    Lessing continues his argument by turning to the other half of Mendelssohn’s theory, the claim that poetry is an art that can represent a succession of events over time rather than one moment in time. “Accordingly, bodies with their visible properties are the true subjects of painting,” while, since actions take place over time, “actions are the true subjects of poetry.” Thus, “painting too can imitate actions, but only by suggestion through bodies,” and again “can use only a single moment of an

    Details

    Type
    premise
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit