Vol. 10 No. 1 (2017): Ways of imitation
Monographica

Toys as Mimetic Objects. A Problem from Plato’s Laws

PDF
  • Stephen Kidd
Stephen Kidd
Brown University, Rhode Island
DOI: https://doi.org/10.13128/Aisthesis-20910

Published 2017-07-11

Keywords

  • Toys,
  • Plato,
  • Paidia,
  • Mimesis

How to Cite

Kidd, S. (2017). Toys as Mimetic Objects. A Problem from Plato’s Laws. Aisthesis. Pratiche, Linguaggi E Saperi dell’estetico, 10(1), 97–105. https://doi.org/10.13128/Aisthesis-20910
Copyright Notice

Abstract

What is a toy? As objects of play, toys seem to be inextricably bound up with mimesis: a child plays ‘make believe’, for example, with a doll or toy cart. But as I will show, Plato has a very different conception of toys from the modern one which tends to conceive of play as essentially mimetic. Toys do not derive their pleasure from being mimetic objects; rather, they are essentially pleasure objects and as such only incidentally mirror the objects of a ‘serious’ or ‘real’ world.

PDF

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...