In the history of western art, as early as in ancient Greece, Plato emphasized the combination of reputation and moral education. From the standpoint of slave owners and nobles, Plato thinks that Homer's epics, tragedies and comedies are all bad, because these works of art make people's reason out of control and their lust is indulged. They advocate "rational" art, with special emphasis on the educational function of music.
Plato's disciple Aristotle also attached great importance to the educational role of art, which was a step closer than Plato. Aristotle believes that the ideal personality is a harmonious personality, and emotion, lust and reason are all the same, which are inherent in human nature and have the same rights to be satisfied.
Therefore, art should have three functions: one is education, the other is purification, and the third is pleasure. In other words, art can help others acquire knowledge, cultivate sentiment and get pleasure. It can be said that the emphasis on the aesthetic education function of art has lasted for more than two thousand years in China and the West, which has a great influence.
The reason why art has the function of aesthetic education is that works of art can not only show the appearance of life, but also show the essential characteristics and laws of life. They always contain the artist's thoughts and feelings.
It contains the artist's knowledge, understanding, evaluation and attitude towards life, permeates the artist's social ideal and aesthetic ideal, and has an enlightening and educational effect on the appreciator.
The aesthetic function of art is different from moral education, even different from other types of education. This is because the educational function of art is based on aesthetic value and has aesthetic significance and artistic charm. As mentioned above, in artistic creation activities, artists adopt the method of turning truth into beauty.
Sublimate life into artistic truth and make the cognitive function of art aesthetic. Similarly, the educational function of art is different from ordinary moral preaching, but has distinct aesthetic education characteristics. This aesthetic function of art has many characteristics, but the most important thing is that it should be perceptual, subtle and entertaining.
Literature and art are works created by summarizing the image of social life, including literature, painting, sculpture, architectural modeling, music, dance, drama, movies and so on.