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    Carmelics

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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that The sculptor of the Laocoön group was correct not to depict Laocoön at the moment of his greatest pain and full scream.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Aristotle's Poetics establishes that the depiction of intense suffering produces catharsis, a morally and aesthetically valuable emotional purgation.
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      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.If catharsis requires the full representation of pathos, then suppressing the scream diminishes the work's highest aesthetic function.
      ?

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    • 3.Winckelmann's criterion of 'noble simplicity and quiet grandeur' reflects a culturally specific neoclassical ideal, not a universal law of visual art.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Lessing's argument assumes imagination always improves upon what is depicted, but Gombrich's work shows viewers anchor interpretation to depicted cues rather than freely extrapolating beyond them.
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    • 2.If the imagination is already constrained by the partial representation Lessing endorses, suppressing the scream merely substitutes one imaginative limit for another without clear aesthetic gain.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Depicting the moment of greatest pain and a full scream would foreclose the free play of the imagination of the audience.
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    • 2.Visual art must choose moments that leave the imagination free to explore further possibilities.
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