Plato, like in most areas of philosophy, is the leading founder of the representational theory of the philosophy of art

representational theory of the philosophy of art. Though Plato builds the foundation of the mimetic theory of art, he does not finish the structure of his theory. His student Aristotle was one of the first to expand on Plato's foundation and refining his initial theory. While Plato largely dismisses artistic mimesis and the imitative arts, Aristotle is more supportive of them. This is because while Plato points out mostly the negative limitations of senses that the imitative arts employ, Aristotle focuses on the higher understanding that they can provide. Though both Plato and Aristotle ultimately see art as reaching the same goal-Truth, the means in which they believe that art can achieve this goal, differ quite a bit. To more accurately understand the discrepancies between Plato's and Aristotle's respected views on the philosophy of art, a brief explanation is required. The cornerstone on which Plato builds his philosophy on is his concept of forms. Plato describes that everything in existence has a unique form. Each form is eternal and unchanging. There is an ultimate form that Plato refers to as The Good – the form of all forms. The Good constitutes the whole of reality and contains three modes – Truth, Beauty, and Justice. It is these three modes unto which art must express or cause action to, in order for something to be labeled as true Art. In addition, The Good and its modes cannot be directly experienced by the senses. For these reasons, how Plato defines Art causes a problem or unrest for some. The Good, according to Plato, is a higher understanding that cannot be felt by the senses. This causes unrest for some as this totally disrupts most people's beliefs of what is formal Art. Since the Truth cannot be understood through merely the senses, most of what one refers to as proper Art is not really Art at all under Plato's definitions.