My Questions

1. On page 26, when he says that the painter may convince "children and silly people" that he has created a real carpenter, does Plato mean to say that the arts are deceptive, or just that they have the potential to deceive?
   
   
   Having discussed this in class, I feel that Plato means only to say that the arts have the potential to deceive. A good artist may create an accurate replica of something, but only someone silly would take it for reality. Does Plato also suggest that artists are silly or childish in the respect that they take images seriously -- that is, they see an image of something as something real? Perhaps, but Plato ignores in this the potential art has to bring unseen, unobserved things to light. He calls art a mirror, deriding it as shallow, but even that statement contains implicitly the possibility of reflection,  as in meditation or self-contemplation, and also as in a bad pun. 
   To finish answering my original question, to say that the arts are deceptive would be to ascribe malicious intent to all artists as a whole, which I think is far from Plato's intention. However, I think it is interesting that he believes artists live an unexamined life or a life of appearances, when it seems to me that good artists are constantly examining themselves, their lives, and the world around them. The ability to observe is essential to good art and good artists.