Abstract

Plato's cntique of poetry in the Republic aims at elucidating the relationship between poetry and philosophy to show the possibility of philosophical thinking. Both philosophy and poetry represent two own ways of experience depending on each other. While poetry is characterized as deceptive, philo- sophy proves herself as experience of tmth with an offspnng in her strife with poetry's untmth, since the latter is unable to express the difference fundamental to her st~cture as mimesis or representation: the difference between the represented Sache and mimesis herself, this recognition of difference being the only way to a measure of her appropriateness to the Sache. Criticizing the mimetic lack of poetry, philosophy leams about her exclusive abilities as mimetic art herself: to perform the mimetic distance in interrogating her mimetic appropriateness and by this to gain a tme understanding about the represented