DOI article:
Essay I: The provice, aim, and methos of the stuy of classical archaeology
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11444#0043
THE STUDY OF CLASSICAL ARCHAEOLOGY.
23
material substances such as water, air, fire, but in the artistic
and sculpturesque form which the thoughts of the great philoso-
phers like Plato and Aristotle take. Their instances are re-
peatedly taken from the fashioning arts, and the main point of
controversy between Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy is
expressed in the relation between matter and form, the sculptor's
material and the form which he infuses into it. In Plato above
all we notice the supreme influence of the artistic training and
the artistic surroundings. Nay, I venture to maintain that, un-
less the artistic and plastic constitution of the Greek mind is
taken into account, Plato's doctrine of Ideas can never be under-
stood. What puzzles and baffles the modern student, and makes
Plato to him a mixture of the profound and the fantastic, is that
Plato's Ideas on the one hand correspond to universals, and
that on the other hand he endows them with real, almost
material, existence. These conceptions can only be understood
when we take into account the plastic nature of the Greek mind,
in which thought and form were inseparably connected, and
when we remember that art was a great reality to the Greeks
and to Plato. In the art of a Pheidias we have a representation
of human form which nevertheless rises above every individual
man ; every individual is imperfect, the statue of Zeus was not.
A mind which is thus from childhood saturated with the ideal
forms that surround it, will be able to feel much more keenly
the reality of that which floats above the incomplete individual
beings, than one to whom art is not such a reality.
I have devoted all this space to suggesting in some way
the plastic character of the Greek mind because it is the fun-
damental characteristic of Greek culture. If we are ignorant
of this quality, it is vain for us to strive at appreciating Greek
antiquity and at conceiving justly the position of classical
archaeology. We may now say with Welcker: 'that the
plastic spirit which distinguishes the Greeks, gives to their
mythology and poetry the highest worth and penetrates their
whole culture, stands forth in greater clearness and richness in
driven to find the first principle in a great unity corresponding to a visible thing ; the
modern philosopher finds this first principle in some Relation or Thought which
cannot be conceived without the supposition of a mind human or similar to it.
23
material substances such as water, air, fire, but in the artistic
and sculpturesque form which the thoughts of the great philoso-
phers like Plato and Aristotle take. Their instances are re-
peatedly taken from the fashioning arts, and the main point of
controversy between Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy is
expressed in the relation between matter and form, the sculptor's
material and the form which he infuses into it. In Plato above
all we notice the supreme influence of the artistic training and
the artistic surroundings. Nay, I venture to maintain that, un-
less the artistic and plastic constitution of the Greek mind is
taken into account, Plato's doctrine of Ideas can never be under-
stood. What puzzles and baffles the modern student, and makes
Plato to him a mixture of the profound and the fantastic, is that
Plato's Ideas on the one hand correspond to universals, and
that on the other hand he endows them with real, almost
material, existence. These conceptions can only be understood
when we take into account the plastic nature of the Greek mind,
in which thought and form were inseparably connected, and
when we remember that art was a great reality to the Greeks
and to Plato. In the art of a Pheidias we have a representation
of human form which nevertheless rises above every individual
man ; every individual is imperfect, the statue of Zeus was not.
A mind which is thus from childhood saturated with the ideal
forms that surround it, will be able to feel much more keenly
the reality of that which floats above the incomplete individual
beings, than one to whom art is not such a reality.
I have devoted all this space to suggesting in some way
the plastic character of the Greek mind because it is the fun-
damental characteristic of Greek culture. If we are ignorant
of this quality, it is vain for us to strive at appreciating Greek
antiquity and at conceiving justly the position of classical
archaeology. We may now say with Welcker: 'that the
plastic spirit which distinguishes the Greeks, gives to their
mythology and poetry the highest worth and penetrates their
whole culture, stands forth in greater clearness and richness in
driven to find the first principle in a great unity corresponding to a visible thing ; the
modern philosopher finds this first principle in some Relation or Thought which
cannot be conceived without the supposition of a mind human or similar to it.