Philosophy Stack Exchange
Philosophy Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [poetry]

13 questions
6
votes
4 answers

What's the meaning of this aphorism by Goethe?

What's the meaning of this aphorism by Goethe? "A Spinoza in poetry becomes Machiavelli in philosophy"
Tayyab
  • 71
  • 4
5
votes
6 answers

The difference between poetry and philosophy, and whether a quote can describe a philosophy

What is the key difference between philosophy and poetry? Can a quote be identified as poetic with a philosophical idea hidden within it? For example Albert Einstein once said: Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited…
user29514
  • 69
  • 1
  • 2
4
votes
1 answer

Reference - Heidegger on Hölderlin's translations?

Surely Heidegger was well aware of the enormous power of Hölderlin's translations, especially of Sophocles' tragedies. Did Heidegger write something about this facet of Hölderlin?
tttbase
  • 141
  • 5
3
votes
2 answers

Is Nietzsche's eternal return symbolized by the Vortex of early modernists?

The image of the Vortex was used a fair amount in Modernist literature, most importantly by Pound and Lewis, who numbered Joyce and Eliot in their circle. I was wondering if a "vortex" was -- implicitly or otherwise -- meant here as a figure for…
user38026
3
votes
4 answers

Any philosophy in verse

Did anyone ever try to write philosophy in verse? Anyone in any tradition, which makes the question v broad but thanks.
user6917
2
votes
1 answer

Term for cohesion/unity (in art)

I am trying to remember a term I once heard/read in a document -- I believe -- related to poetry and music. If not mistaken, the term was introduced by Aristotle/Plato, and it defines that: a piece of art is/has p______eia when it presents elements…
Rubens
  • 123
  • 5
2
votes
1 answer

What are "Things" in Letters to a Young Poet?

I know Letters to a Young Poet, a work composed of letters by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, is probably not very canonical but it does address philosophical and existential questions so I hope someone on this site might be able to help. He mentions…
Barinder Singh
  • 1,298
  • 1
  • 13
  • 20
2
votes
3 answers

According to the Natural Law, should poetry rhyme?

I usually ask questions like this on Christianity.SE, but I've got a feeling it's better suited here. And just to be clear, I want only Natural Law (Aristotle, Aquinas, etc) answers pointing to objective truth. Poetry has gone through many phases…
Peter Turner
  • 689
  • 6
  • 12
1
vote
0 answers

Is the couplet about mathematics and poetry about logocentricism and deconstructionism?

I find this couplet really interesting: Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things Poetry is the art of giving different names to the same thing The first one is made from Poincaré, the second one is a quick response of…
Ooker
  • 725
  • 1
  • 5
  • 19
0
votes
1 answer

Self contradictory things that can't really exist: can they be fully conceived of?

It seems like we can conceive of self contradictory things that can exist. e.g. the proposition expressed by "this sentence is false" is self contradictory but I don't seem to have any trouble understanding the sentence. e.g. Lazerowitz says that…
user38026
-1
votes
3 answers

Who has used Poetry for Philosophy?

"Ineffable" is the word for that which can be touched by the mind but not the tongue. But in poetry images may be made that transcend the reality of mere language. This seems to me an excellent vehicle for the convolutions of Philosophy. Now I know…
christo183
  • 2,347
  • 4
  • 13
  • 33
-2
votes
1 answer

What is it like to be a groundhog?

In North America, we celebrate a glorious holiday called Groundhog Day. On the second of February, the marmots awaken and leave their burrows, along with their families, to examine the weather. If the animals see their shadows, they'll retreat…
Michael Lee
  • 1,041
  • 1
  • 9
  • 21
-2
votes
2 answers

Which poems and song lyrics do you find philosophically meaningful?

While there is a philosophical tradition that conspues poets as meaningless fools (Plato wanted them out of his republic), there's also the classic argument of poets that they approach universal truths via their art, that without poets, elements of…
Olivier5
  • 299
  • 9