Plato and Aristotle argue that artist (Demiurge) and poet imitate nature, thus, a work of art is a relection of nature. Aristotle, on the other hand, does not deal with the ideal world, instead he analyses nature. He argues that a work of art does not imitate nature as it is, but as it should be.

Plato had two theories of art. According to this theory, since art imitates physical things, which in turn imitate the Forms, art is always a copy of a copy, and leads us even further from truth and toward illusion. For this reason, as well as because of its power to stir the emotions, art is dangerous.

Mimesis, basic theoretical principle in the creation of art. The word is Greek and means “imitation” (though in the sense of “re-presentation” rather than of “copying”). Plato and Aristotle spoke of mimesis as the re-presentation of nature.

Plato’s objection refuted: • Plato says that art being the imitation of the actual is removed from truth. It only gives the likeness of a thing in concrete, and the likeness is always less than real. But Plato fails to understand that art also give something more which is absent in the actual.

Plato’s three main objections to poetry are that poetry is not ethical, Philosophical and pragmatic, in other words, he objected to poetry from the point of view of Education, from Philosophical point of view and moral point of view.

According to Aristotle, happiness consists in achieving, through the course of a whole lifetime, all the goods — health, wealth, knowledge, friends, etc. — that lead to the perfection of human nature and to the enrichment of human life. This requires us to make choices, some of which may be very difficult.

Aristotle believed that human flourishing requires a life with other people. Aristotle taught that people acquire virtues (i.e., good habits) through practice and that a set of concrete virtues could lead a person toward his natural excellence and happiness. Aristotle did not regard ethics as an exact science.

Kant does believe that, all other things being equal, it is better to be happy than to be miserable. And he wouldn’t think that looking out for our own happiness is immoral. Looking out for people’s happiness follows from their intrinsic and infinite value as autonomous, free, rational beings.

Following Aristotle’s account of the doctrine of means, virtues exist as a balance between extremes, which are understood to be vices. Kant disagrees with this conception and argues that virtues do not exist on a continuum whereby lack or excess that same virtue becomes a vice.

The traditional view of the relationship between the moral theories of Aristotle and Kant is that the two were fundamentally opposed to each other. Kant not only radically rejected Aristotle’s eudaimonism, but he was also opposed to virtue as a fundamental ethical category.