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Plato, Poetry and Creativity

Scott, Dominic (2011) Plato, Poetry and Creativity. In: Destree, Pierre and Herrmann, Fritz-Gregor, eds. Plato and the Poets. Mnemosyne, Supplements, 328 . Brill, Leiden, pp. 131-154. ISBN 978-90-04-20129-3. E-ISBN 978-90-04-20183-5. (doi:10.1163/ej.9789004201293.i-434) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:40580)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004201293.i-434

Abstract

The subject of this paper is poetic creativity as it features in various Platonic works: the nature and source of creativity, as well as the way in which it differs from the activity of philosophy. I shall argue that Plato gives us at least three quite different models of poetic creativity. One can be extracted from the Ion and the Meno, another from the Symposiim and a third from the Gorgias and Republic VI. The main focus of this paper will be on the model given in the Symposium where Diotima talks of how such poets as Homer and Hesiod succeeded in creating works that would secure them everlasting memory (209a-d). This passage has not received the attention it deserves within discussions of Platonic poetics, and it is all the more interesting when juxtaposed with the more familiar account of poetic creativity found in the Ion.

Item Type: Book section
DOI/Identification number: 10.1163/ej.9789004201293.i-434
Additional information: number of additional authors: 0;
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Culture and Languages
Depositing User: Stewart Brownrigg
Date Deposited: 07 Mar 2014 00:05 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:15 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/40580 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Scott, Dominic.

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