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The Poet!

               The Poet! “light, winged, holy creature” ~ The words of Socrates to describe a poet, as quoted in Penelope Murray, Plato on Poetry, 8 That’s always how I’ve thought about myself, Yup, yes, of course, at least when I have thought Of me as “poet”—surely...

Socrates versus Sappho

  Socrates versus Sappho   One wonders if poor Socrates might just Have been much happier if he had made Up poems, not philosophy.  A gust Of inspiration from Apollo swayed The poets into rhapsody of thrill. While lost in love for some young person’s hair, The writers...

Spells and the Thoughts of Tiresias

Spells and the Thoughts of Tiresias “Halliwell’s basic argument is that Socrates admits the Book X arguments to be insecure and open to defeat. He calls them ‘spells’ rather than philosophical knowledge, and he asserts that he must use them [those arguments]...

Sovereignty

               Sovereignty Modern poetry  modern verse  contemporary poetry  contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Is it simply that people who philosophize think that people who produce, consume, or appreciate poetry (the philopoiêtai) have the wrong...

Philopoiêtai, Poetry Lovers from Time Immemorial

Philopoiêtai, Poetry Lovers from Time Immemorial “Plato’s Symposium shows how Plato deploys dramatic irony to undermine the philopoiêtai’s use of poetry. Elizabeth Belfiore (“Poets and the Symposium”) argues that the dialogue’s first five symposiasts, in their poetic...

Nietzsche vs. Plato

       Nietzsche vs. Plato Modern poetry  modern verse  contemporary poetry  contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Nietzsche said that Plato was “the greatest enemy of art Europe has yet produced.” This Plato spoke in imagery so far Removed from Heidegger...