Reading Platonic and Neoplatonic Notions of Mimesis with and against Martin Heidegger

Abstract

Martin Heidegger’s criticism of aesthetics relies on his reading of Nietzsche and Plato. Central to this criticism is the notion of truth as representation of ideal supersensuous forms attributed to Plato’s doctrine of truth. Along with Nietzsche, Heidegger wishes to criticize positivism, the notion that all there is lies in front of our senses. Twisting free of Platonism runs the risk of falling prey to the most hard core positivism. Thus Heidegger’s twisting free of Platonism means a strong reinterpretation of Plato and an explanation of representation as imitation, namely subordinate production or unhiddeness. Heidegger proceeds to interpret truth as aletheia or unhiddeness, translating literally from ancient Greek and establishing a non representational notion of truth against the traditional concept of truth as representation. Truth as unhiddeness is a productive and useful notion that escapes the Platonic condemnation of art on behalf of truth and allows art direct access to ideal forms. This direct access of art to ideal forms has been heralded by Plotinus and it is via Plotinus rather than Plato himself, that Heidegger reinterprets Platonism.