In this lesson, Mayhew discusses the philosophical and cultural context of Aristotle’s Poetics. He explains that in contrast to Plato, who saw art as an emotionalistic, uninstructive, and thus dangerous, enterprise, Aristotle treated art as a rational, intelligible object of study that could benefit man. Mayhew also highlights Aristotle’s thoughts on the nature and standards of plot, and draws similarities with Ayn Rand’s views.