Even though Aristotle was a student of Plato, he diverged from his teacher greatly in terms of his attitude towards art (although I challenge the idea that they diverge at the end of this podcast!). Plato thought that art separated us from reality, being at an even lower level than the merely derivative physical reality we see, which is on a lower level of reality than the abstract general Forms that pertain universally to individual things. Aristotle, on the other hand, thought that art is a kind of mimesis, or imitation, that trains to cognize the identity of things, and can purify our emotions of pity and fear through a process of catharisis. Please check out the wonderful article at Classical Wisdom: https://classicalwisdom.com/philosophy/aristotle/aristotles-poetics/.
