Raphael's "The School of Athens"

1)      Raphael’s painting “The School of Athens” actually appears to be a school about philosophy. In the painting there is a gathering of opposites. Plato heads one side and Aristotle heads the other. Plato’s side is composed of mathematicians and writers and people who are down to Earth. Aristotle’s side consists of physicists and people who are concerned with the heavens. The way in which Plato and Aristotle are pointing could be analyzed in two ways. The first is that Plato is pointing up to say that you need to know about down to Earth things as well as the heavens to truly understand philosophy and Aristotle seems to be saying the same thing by pointing down at the ground. The other way it could be interpreted is that since Plato uses deduction, which is from general to specific, he is pointing up to symbolize where you should start. He is saying that you should start at the top and then work down. Aristotle is pointing down since he uses induction, which is specific to general, so you start at something specific and then make general conclusions based on that. Overall, this is probably the best painting I have seen this semester.