Plato: Should art be censored?

This lesson introduces Plato’s views on art and some of the philosophical questions it raises:

• Is it ever right to censor a work of art?
• Is art dangerous?
• Is all art imitation?

This lesson is part of a History of Philosophy in Fifty Questions scheme of work, which takes students from Thales and the origins of philosophy, right up to the 21st Century. Each lesson is based around an inquiry question, which links to the work of a key philosopher.

Each lesson is a contained in single resource which includes:

• Vocabulary recap “settle down” starter/bell task
• Discussion based starter linking to the inquiry question for the lesson
• Glossary of key terms introduced in the lesson
• A key reading which supports the inquiry question
• Knowledge check questions to clarify student understanding of the reading
• Discussion and extended writing tasks
• A teacher page, giving suggested answers and discussion points for each of the tasks, as well as ideas for stretch and challenge and additional activities

These resources are great if you want to spend your time on teaching rather than editing somebody else’s PowerPoint. They also work well for cover lessons and distance/remote learning.