Poetry and Philosophy: Towards a Comparative Analysis

Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, Volume 42, Number 1, Spring 2009, pp. 151-161., 2009

Karl Marx may seem an unlikely ally in putting poetry and philosophy together again, but I find his description of what he did with Hegel instructive: he said he did not turn Hegel upside down but, finding him standing on his head, put him on his feet. The separation of philosophy and poetry has too often resulted in disembodied heads and (recalling Walter Benjamin’s assertion that the idea of poetry is prose) bodies with no idea. My suggestion, which I will develop in this paper, is that in philosophical practices such as pragmatism that take place in a variety of genres and disciplines we have models for a more whole human wisdom than the broken pursuit of “pure” reason to which philosophers in the West have often confined themselves by exiling poetry from philosophy and allowing philosophy no place vis–à–vis poetry other than the prose carcass of a poem undone. The sort of argument that calls for, in keeping with one of the oldest traditions in “Western” philosophy, is a sort of story, don’t you think?

Tattva - Journal of Philosophy, 2025

Is poetry a topic for philosophical reflection? This paper seeks to argue that it is by exhibiting poetry as a form of knowledge. What the claim that poetry is a form of knowledge amounts to, is that something can be knowledge in virtue of being poetical and poetical in virtue of being the (kind of) knowledge it is. Various kinds of skeptical doubt about this claim are considered. It is argued that such doubts are based on distorting pictures of poetry. Two strategies to justify the claim that poetry is a form of knowledge shall be explored. The first strategy is a broadly Wittgensteinian one, relying on grammatical reminders. The second strategy is a broadly Hegelian one, exhibiting poetry as a form of knowledge by showing that the concepts of two other forms of knowledge – practical and second-person knowledge – due to internal incoherences, point beyond themselves towards the concept of poetry.

Philosophy Compass, 2019

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Karen Simecek's interests are in Philosophy of Poetry, Aesthetics, Moral Reasoning and the Emotions. She is working on issues around the value of reading poetry in terms of how this experience can enhance our understanding of ourselves and contribute to our sense of moral progress. Her current focus is on the potential value of the performed poem, which she connects with the idea of shared emotion. Here she discusses why philosophers have thought philosophy and poetry are antagonistic, why she disagrees, narrative artworks and emotions, the role of perspective in this, why the non-narrative lyric can give us emotional insights, how a perspectivalist argument regarding the arts can help facilitate ethical enquiry as well as emotional, why we should teach poetry to children, whether the reasons for teaching poetry extend to other art forms, James Britton, the relationship between poetry and the cognitive and affective processes, Jerome Bruner, why the arts aren't humanities or sciences, and why we should teach the arts at University. 3:AM: What made you become a philosopher? Karen Simecek: I've always loved thinking and being creative in thought; looking for alternatives and imagining possibilities. I was brought up to question things, and I was often encouraged to imagine how things might be otherwise. When I found philosophy, it seemed like the perfect match. I remember reading George Orwell's 1984 when I was about 14 and discussing this with my Mum who grew up in Ostrava in what was then Czechoslovakia. I had taken the story to depict a wholly fictional dystopia, yet through conversations with my Mum I learnt that the story had strong resonances with her upbringing. She would talk about her experiences of studying history at school and then reading about history as an adult only to find that the Soviet-influenced history text books they had at school were at odds with the history books she was now reading. This had a profound effect on me and sparked reflection on the nature of truth and knowledge, and the need to question, analyse and evaluate for oneself as a way of protecting oneself from manipulation, deception and corruption. For me, philosophy represented freedom in thinking. I'm not saying I have developed immunity to bad thinking and cognitive bias but philosophy offers a way through and a way out of bad thinking. However, it wasn't until after studying for an MA in Philosophy at University of Sheffield that I came to aesthetics and philosophical reflection on poetry. I enrolled on a continuing lifelong learning course at the University of Sheffield. My poetry teacher there, Chris Jones was a wonderful poet and teacher who encouraged me to read and write poetry.