Plotinus on Art and Knowledge

Beauty and art have main positions in Plotinus (203-273) philosophy. He specifically worked on art and beauty in three treatises of Enneades: sixth treatise of first ennead, eighth treatise of fifth ennead and seventh treatise of sixth ennead. In two parts of Plotinu's theory, beauty and art are the same. He says the artist should make himself beautiful and get far from dirt to see the intelligible beauty. Thereby he comes back to his self and realizes it as it is and therefore he comes beautiful and can see intelligible beauty. In another part he says that artistic creation is similar to creation of nature, soul and nous. In other word as they create the beauty by looking, artist also creates beauty by looking the intelligible forms. So what leads in all creations is knowledge. Therefore in plotinus opinion, aesthetics is epistemology and ontology. In this ideology, comprehending the being needs becoming beautiful and getting beautiful is becoming good.