The 12^th International Conference of
	ISSEI	In cooperation With
	International Society for the Study of European Ideas

Section V: Religion, Philosophy, Anthropology, Psychology, Language

Workshop: Literary Philosophy and Philosophic Literature

Chair: Ann Ward

The complex relation between philosophy and poetry has been a subject of debate since at least Greek antiquity. The comic poet Aristophanes explicitly took this relationship as his theme in his play the Clouds. Here, Aristophanes ridicules Socratic philosophy, in contrast to his own work, for an impiety and injustice that undermines the unity and authority of the political community. As if in response to Aristophanes, Plato’s Socrates critiques poetry in the name of philosophy. In the Republic, Socrates argues that the poets Hesiod and Homer construct a narrative of the gods that glorifies the extremes of injustice and retribution thus providing an inappropriate basis for politics. Moreover, Socrates critiques poetic speech not simply for the moral and ethical failings of its content, but also for its lack of truth. For instance, in the Symposium Socrates establishes that eros is the love of something not yet possessed. Socrates thus refutes the claims made in the dialogue by the comedian Aristophanes and the tragedian Agathon that eros is a god and as such is the beautiful and the good.

Despite the critique of poetry articulated by Plato’s Socrates, we must remember that the Platonic dialogue is a dramatic discourse and thus can be considered a work of art in itself. Aristotle also gives credit to poetry when he argues, in the Poetics, that poetry is more philosophic than history because poetry, unlike history, embeds universal truths about human beings in its presentation of particular people.

In early modernity and the Enlightenment, many poets incorporated philosophic ideas into their work. For instance, William Shakespeare, the great bard, engages philosophic questions throughout his corpus, and makes themes of political philosophy especially prominent in his Italian and Roman plays and in his English history plays. Not only have poets taken philosophic themes as their subject matter, but philosophers have also turned to poetry to express their ideas. Machiavelli, for example, gives an alternative presentation of his thoughts on tyranny and republicanism in his play the Mandragola, and Voltaire expresses his Enlightenment ideas in his comic novel Candide.

Benedict Spinoza, like medieval theorists such as Al-Farabi and Maimonides, develops a theoretical framework for understanding political poetry, or what Chiara Bottici calls “political myth,” through his analysis of prophecy. Viewing the creation and sustaining of the Jewish nation as paradigmatic, Spinoza demonstrates the grounding function of political prophecy. According to Spinoza, when Moses, after the exodus from Egypt, used prophecy to persuade the Jewish people of their nation’s divine origins, he provided grounding or significance to their particular political regime: theocracy. In other words, Moses’ prophetic language makes Israel’s obedience to the divine law appear necessary. For Spinoza, the example of the creation of the Jewish polity demonstrates that, since most people live on the level of the imagination, those who can reach the level of intellectual knowledge must have recourse to the poetic imagery of prophecy if they wish to communicate such knowledge to the nation as a whole. Many scholars argue that modern social contract theorists such as Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau, following Spinoza’s analysis of prophecy, appeal to the “myth” or poetic imagery of the state of nature to ground their philosophical teachings about natural rights and the free society.

In the 19^th and 20^th centuries philosophers have critiqued their own activity in the name of art. In the Birth of Tragedy Nietzsche attacks Socratic philosophy, which he assimilates with science, for its elevation of reason, in contrast to the god Dionysus’ celebration of the body and its passions through the medium of ancient tragedy. In Beyond Good and Evil Nietzsche explores what he regards as the diminishment of human beings through the democratic movement. For Nietzsche, the democratic movement, having its origins like science in Socratic philosophy, must be confronted by philosophers of the future who call forth a new type of nobility through the reinvocation of the god Dionysus. Nietzsche thus envisions an aristocratic order that draws its inspiration from art rather than the rationalism embodied in the history of philosophy.

In the 20^th century, postmodern philosopher Richard Rorty rejects the tendency of philosophy to posit absolute, universal truths and instead turns to the concept of “redescription” which he associates with the “wisdom of the novel.” The wisdom of the novel is its tendency to posit relative truths or the various perspectives of different individuals, societies and cultures. The novelist can give full hearing to all particular persons, actions and situations; they are neither right nor wrong but merely different. The novel as an art form can therefore include, or redescribe, every possible perspective of every particular situation, event or person.

In the 21^st century and beyond, will we ground our intellectual, social and political lives on art, as Nietzsche and Rorty suggest? Or philosophy, as Socrates suggests? Or will we carve our way into the future relying on some combination of both paths to knowledge and truth?

This workshop will explore the relationship between philosophy and poetry from the classical to contemporary periods. Papers would be welcomed on the following or related topics:

-the relationship or connection between philosophy and poetry

-the distinction or separation between philosophy and poetry

-poetic or artistic themes addressed by individual philosophers or related philosophies in the history of philosophy

-philosophic or political themes addressed by individual poets or related genres in literary or art history

-the philosophic critique of poetry

-the poetic or artistic critique of philosophy

Paper proposals should be one half to one page in length.

Ann Ward

Campion College

University of Regina

Ann.Ward@uregina.ca

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