Prophets, poets, and philosophers: unraveling the problem of poetry in Plato - a daimonic solution

Hill, Elizabeth A. (2024) Prophets, poets, and philosophers: unraveling the problem of poetry in Plato - a daimonic solution. Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This study addresses the problem of poetry in Plato by arguing that one can read poetry in the dialogues as daimonic. “Daimonic,” in this context, refers to an experience, activity, or practice that aims to mediate the gap between human existence and divine understanding. The “problem of poetry” refers to the apparent contradiction in Plato’s corpus regarding the value of poetry for the philosophical life. In the Republic, Socrates famously banishes the poets from the Kallipolis, supporting the view that the vast majority of the classical canon of poetry is psychologically damaging to the development of the city’s would-be philosopher-kings and queens. However, in other texts, such as the Ion and Phaedrus, Plato’s Socrates explicitly calls poetry divinely inspired, a form of divine mania. Since Plato’s work also consistently argues that the gods can only cause good things, attributing divine inspiration to poetry indicates that poetry is good for the philosopher’s soul, contra the Republic. Hence, a question arises as to whether poetry is good or bad for the philosopher’s ascent toward knowledge. This study answers that poetry is edifying for the soul’s ascent, provided that the philosopher treats poetry as daimonic. This dissertation argues that Plato’s treatment of poetry, especially in the Ion, parallels the description of the daimonic given by Diotima in the Symposium. By understanding poetry as daimonic, the philosopher can engage with it as she does other daimonic elements, such as the mystagogic, oracular, and erotic. However, to establish the daimonic nature of poetry as a solution to the problem of poetry, this study must first address recent readings of Plato that take his praise of reason to the exclusion of extra-rational elements such as the erotic, poetic, prophetic, and so on. Accordingly, this study first argues that reason in the Platonic corpus is compatible with certain extra-rational activities, practices, and experiences that are daimonic. Even when the daimonic exceeds the grasp of an individual’s discursive reasoning, it is nonetheless still rooted in a divine, cosmic order that is fundamentally rational. Hence, this study first establishes the value of the daimonic itself in the ascent of the soul before addressing poetry itself as daimonic. The study then examines the comments made in the Republic regarding poetry. It concludes that Socrates’ target lies in popular methods of approaching and interpreting the poets rather than in poetry itself. Specifically, Socrates aims at popular practices of allegoresis, on the one hand, and, on the other, at the trend of treating the poets as purveyors of practical wisdom and techne. Hence, there is room in Plato’s corpus to find value in poetry when one approaches it in alternative ways. The daimonic reading is one such alternative interpretive approach to poetry. The study concludes by looking at least one way poetry can operate daimonically, taking the Cratylus as its model. In the Cratylus, Socrates treats poetry in a manner parallel to its mystagogic use in the Orphic Derveni Papyrus. The mystagogic use of poetry in the Cratylus reveals poetry’s daimonic ability to reveal a gap between human understanding articulated through speech and discursive thought and the divine knowledge of a comprehensive, stable, and unified reality. Poetic language also serves an initiatory function by keeping the dialectic alive, supplying it with new ways to investigate reality. Hence, the daimonic reading of poetry counters interpretations of an anti-poetry position in the Platonic dialogues and works to significantly reduce the textual tensions resulting in the famed problem of poetry in Plato.

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