Some specialists believe that philosophy began with poetry, particularly in the search for the origin of the universe and things
The relationship between philosophy and poetry has remained a subject of debate
Souad Khalil | Libya
What is the relationship between poetry and philosophy?
Some specialists believe that philosophy began with poetry, particularly in the search for the origin of the universe and things, as done by the early natural philosophers such as Thales and Heraclitus. Both ancient and modern philosophers, especially Schelling, Lessing, and Gaston Bachelard, along with poets like Shelley, Lord Byron, Tarfa, and Al-Mutanabbi, sought to transform thought into art, to create free, imaginative works. Thus, the relationship between philosophy and poetry has remained a subject of debate.
When we examine poetry and philosophy closely, we discover an infinite number of philosophical ideas that are suitable material for poetry. In fact, these ideas are inherently poetic. In this study, we can comment on some of these ideas, one by one, and then reflect on them as a whole.
Science and Philosophy as Poetry
Planck says: “It seems that philosophers, especially philosophers of science, do not make discoveries, but rather present hypotheses that we can define as poetic.” The scientist Einstein was famous for saying: “In every brilliant mathematical idea, there is a flash of poetry.” Similarly, what metaphysical and existentialist philosophers present in terms of perceptions or ideas can be called poetic conceptions. This means that philosophical conceptions often reveal themselves as poetic conceptions in terms of thinking or in how concepts are formulated.
The composition of a poem, which carries with it the secret of its immortality, must be filled with vision. The poet’s vision is a transformation of a series of aesthetically formulated hypotheses generated by an understanding and sensitive mind. This response to life, as we hear it in poetry, serves as an interpretation of life or a suggestion for another way of living. The habit of formulating philosophical and poetic concepts is what the creative human mind achieves through imagination, a process aimed at reaching perfection, forming a destiny as the philosopher or artist desires.
Poetry and the Search for Perfection
Creativity in beauty manifests alongside existence, as the poet or artist envisions it. Here we achieve a profound convergence between the horizon of poetry and the horizon of thought, through the logic of perception that constitutes the dynamic part of their imagination. Among these perceptions is the idea of the infinity of the world.
There is no doubt that the feeling of the infinity of the world is a cosmic feeling. It is cosmic poetry because it allows us to realize how we can free ourselves from two limitations toward a wider horizon, the absolute world, where everything subjective and partial is transformed into the all-encompassing world. The philosophical horizon, in its frantic search for Perfection as an end in itself, enters the world of Platonic ideals, or the world of the spirit, as conceived before Hegel in one of the masterpieces of idealism.
Poetry and Philosophy in the Search for the Unknown
Likewise, this philosophical impulse transforms into a poetic impulse, where the poet unites with his poetic ideal through the convention of inspiration, intuition, and the power to evoke or make visible the eye of imagination. Here, knowledge becomes a recovery of memory, and the spirit becomes coherent with the worlds of prophecy. Poets cling to a search between ruins and utopia, describing a world of the impossible and the astonishing in search of the treasure of human secrets that emanate from feelings and from the human subconscious to the realm of predictions and metaphysics.
The Intersection between Philosophy and Poetry
There are other perceptions where poetry meets philosophy, including dualism, the opposite of existence, and determinism, which in some of its meanings means a logical breakdown of things. In the philosopher’s search for the secret of the power of transience and nothingness, it leads to absurd behavior and the perception of futility. Determinism, undoubtedly, in its simplest definitions, is the relationship between cause and effect, and the philosopher presented it to solve the confusion surrounding death, the death of seasons, of things, and man, in a view that does not reference religion or its interpretations.
Poets’ View of Death
Thus, we find two profound philosophical images: one is the image of the deterministic act, represented in a pessimistic, nihilistic conception, as seen in Schopenhauer’s work and those who were influenced by him. Alternatively, it may be interpreted as a natural and realistic condition, where the philosopher encounters divine destiny. Here, the philosopher offers this concept, attempting to imagine transience as a natural state experienced by beings, where they fade and disappear in order to give birth to a new identity and development in the world
These perceptions often opened the poet’s horizon. In wisdom poetry, we can deduce the views of poets of humanity in general, and Arabic poetry in particular, such as Tarfa, Al-Mutanabbi, Al-Sayyab, Nizar, and many others, who understood the inevitability of death as a vision and possibility of vanishing. In their artistic perception of death, they viewed it as a means of escaping the superficiality and repetition of poetry. Death, in this sense, is the only thing that can bring success to poetry, distancing it from flatness and distortion.
Philosophical Ideas in Poetry
There are other philosophical ideas characterized by intrinsic poeticism, such as the imitation of nature and its elements by establishing dialogical philosophical hypotheses. Paul Fleiss said in his book Nature and Man: “Every subject in the universe implies a certain degree of harmony with itself.” The material world, despite the effects on the eye, becomes a non-material world. What is seen is not the external world, but rather an image of it, and therefore, it becomes an internal world.
Poetry and Nature: Reflection of the Soul
If we look closely at the claims of philosophers of natural science, we find them proclaiming that nature’s events are presented to the mind in a certain way and then attributed to living bodies. However, in this process of perception, the mind radiates feelings, reflecting them and adding to the external world’s things, making them appear as if they possess these qualities. But the new qualities of nature (the external world) are inventions of the mind.
When the poet speaks to or about nature, he cloaks it with the same garment, making it a human being that speaks with the voice of an angel. The poet imbues it with human feelings. This creativity, previously non-existent, contains the secret of the poet’s creative power. This is the key to poetry’s creative faculty, and thus the superior capacity of the human mind.
Conclusion
Poetry was humanity’s hymn, where it experienced all its worries, weaknesses, and strengths, stripped of all superficial beauty and meaning.
Read: Russian Philosophy and the Music
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Souad Khalil is a Libyan writer, poet, and translator. She has been writing on culture, literature and other general topics.
