The ancient quarrel and the dream of writing

Smith, R.

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to question and finally reject the tendency to see philosophy and literature (especially poetry) as essentially distinct forms of language, a tendency which sometimes extends to regarding them as mutually exclusive and to be understood as in some way in opposition to each other. The idea of that opposition is generally supposed to go back as far as Plato, at least, and much of what I write here will concern just how we are to read what we find on the matter in Plato's Republic, how we are to read Plato's dialogues in general and, even more broadly, how we are to read what comes to us under the title of philosophy. It is Plato, I suggest, who supplies us with a powerful way of understanding the instability of the literature/philosophy binary, and who, at the end of Republic, invites us to witness its collapse.

Citation

Smith, R. (2018). The ancient quarrel and the dream of writing. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 52(4), 592-608. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12324

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 27, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Mar 28, 2019
• Publication Date: Oct 30, 2018
• Deposit Date: Dec 18, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 28, 2021
• Journal: Journal of Philosophy of Education
• Print ISSN: 0309-8249
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-9752
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 52
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 592-608
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12324
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1311555