Poetry, Inspiration, and Knowledge in Plato's Ion: From Paradox to Pedagogy

Abstract:In Plato's Ion, Socrates dismisses the "inspired" creations of poetic or other art as genuine forms of knowledge or techne, foreshadowing his later suspicion and (even) condemnation of the human value of art in such later dialogues as Republic. I argue that while Socrates raises a serious issue, this ancient case for inherent opposition or contradiction between inspiration and knowledge rests upon some failure (or unwillingness) to appreciate that epistemic capacities and concerns often have different forms and purposes in the nonliteral, figurative, and rhetorical sphere of poetic and other literary arts from those of more literal or factual knowledge.