School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

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The orphic liar: the quarrel between poetry and philosophy

Lawrence, Desmonda ( 2017)

Though Plato claimed the quarrel between poetry and philosophy was already ancient, his exile of poets in from the republic marks an important foundational gesture for philosophy. This thesis suggests the quarrel is foundational in at least some of philosophy's prevailing modes of practice; and seeks to characterise the nature of the quarrel, and to consider what is at stake in philosophical practice where the exclusionary gesture is maintained. Chapters on Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Poetics and Kant's Critique of Judgement consider three sites in the history of philosophy where its relationship with poetry has been constitutive. The later chapters, on the work of Cora Diamond and Raimond Gaita, consider some implications of philosophy’s exile of poetry for its current modes of practice and suggest possibilities for reflective spaces philosophy might inhabit that are not dictated to it by the terms of the quarrel.