In Praise of Plato's Poetic Imagination

Plato has often been read as denigrating the cognitive and ethical value of poetry. In his dialogues, the faculty that corresponds to the poetic-the imagination-is located at the lowest level of human intelligence, and so is further from true understanding. Simultaneously, the Platonic dialogues violate Plato's own alleged prohibitions against quoting and imitating poets, and much of the writing in the dialogues is poetic. All too often, the voluminous literature on Plato dismisses Plato's poetic formulations as merely the unintended contradictions of an otherwise meticulous author.

Sonja Tanner is assistant professor of philosophy and director of classics at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.