Ancient Philosophical Poetics

Reveals how ancient philosophers approached questions about the nature of poetry, its ethical and social impact and access to truth.

Malcolm Heath (Author)

9780521198790, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 November 2012

204 pages
23.5 x 15.5 x 1.4 cm, 0.43 kg

What is poetry? Why do human beings produce and consume it? What effects does it have on them? Can it give them insight into truth, or is it dangerously misleading? This book is a wide-ranging study of the very varied answers which ancient philosophers gave to such questions. An extended discussion of Plato's Republic shows how the two discussions of poetry are integrated with each other and with the dialogue's central themes. Aristotle's Poetics is read in the context of his understanding of poetry as a natural human behaviour and an intrinsically valuable component of a good human life. Two chapters trace the development of the later Platonist tradition from Plutarch to Plotinus, Longinus and Porphyry, exploring its intellectual debts to Epicurean, allegorical and Stoic approaches to poetry. It will be essential reading for classicists as well as ancient philosophers and modern philosophers of art and aesthetics.

1. Poetry: the roots of a problem
2. A radical solution: Plato's Republic
3. The natural history of poetry: Aristotle
4. Ways to find truth in falsehood
5. The marriage of Homer and Plato.

Subject Areas: Philosophy: aesthetics [HPN], Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Literary studies: general [DSB], Literary theory [DSA]