Plato has much to say about poetry and about arts which can
be called fine (or beautiful) such as music and painting, and deals
with them in a variety of contexts.These contributions of his have
attracted the attention of scholars, giving rise to a vast, and ever
increasing,production of books and articles.Much of this production
assumes that it is legitimate to talk of a Platonic philosophy (or
philosophical theory) of art, often even adopting this as the title
(or subtitle) of the scholar’s presentation.1 It is also admitted,though