The fire & the sun: Why Plato banished the artists

"In this book, based on her 1976 Romanes Lecture, the distinguished novelist and philosopher discusses Plato's view on art and examines sympathetically the reasons for his hostility towards it. She offers a coherent and fully argued account of Plato's theories of art and of beauty and of their metaphysical background, which shows also that Plato was aware of the dangers of his own artistry. The argument more widely concerns the place of art in life, and includes brief discussion of ideas of many other thinkers, including Kant, Tolstoy, Freud and Kierkegaard. The book also comprises in an accessible form a general view of the development of Plato's thought." [Back cover].