Saying the pólis: Gadamer's interpretation of the relationship between poetry and politics in Plato's philosophy: Plato und die Dichter (1934)

FACUNDO BEY

Sao Paulo

Otro; IPSA-USP Summer School in Concepts, Methods and Techniques in Political Science and International Relations; 2018

International Political Science Association - Universidade de São Paulo

What is the relationship between poetry and politics in the Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) interpretation of platonic political philosophy? What original contribution does it make to Political Theory as a study on the relationship between art and politics? My main hypotheses are: a) Gadamer showed in his 1934's conference "Plato und die Dichter" how poetry and philosophy are not in an ultimate opposition relationship. I propose it is also possible to reinforce this interpretation by exploring how the dimension of "the sacred" both in poetry and philosophy makes accesible the understanding of the political existence of man. b) Although Gadamer arguments consistently that Plato's philosophy may be understood as a kind of "dialogical poetry", he didn't pay attention on how the figure of the poet exemplifies a broader phenomenon, namely, unexamined social life. The incapacity of poets to give account of their ignorance it is not only a characterization of the frustrating experience of being ruled by unable mobs and self-interested politicians but also a point of departure to understand the necessity of a philosophical treatment of poetry and evaluation of the social pedagogical effects of poetry.b) The kind of pleasure that results from the mediation of the dianoetic faculty of phrónesis makes possible understand why enjoyment and justice are not incompatible.c) Gadamer's Plato und die Dichter can open a new path in understanding the cultural and political lapse from democracy into totalitarianism.d) Although there is a notion of "subjectivity" in Gadamer's studies on Plato, it is very different from the idea of "interiority" typical of Cartesian's modern thought. It's structure could be both found in the proposed relationship between body and soul in platonic philosophy and in the preminence of language over subject, present in Gadamer's thought as well as in Plato's work.e) Even though the importance of Martin Heidegger's influence, one of his main teachers, can not be dismissed, Gadamer's reading of the relationship between poetry and politics is very different and original. I propose to understand it also as a debate, with large political repercusions.The aim of my research is to present Gadamer?s early work, specially his studies on Plato?s political philosophy and its relationship with art. I will analyze the hypotheses exposed in Gadamer 1934?s conference ?Plato und die Dichter? and to add new theoretical contribution departing from his conceptual frame and filling theoretical gaps. Also, I will present the actuality of the Gadamer interpretation by means of both the analysis of his contemporary reception in political theory and the theoretical discussion of this reception. I will recur Phenomenology as a method of analysis aims to follow the meaning of the ideas, notions or concepts itself which may emerge and change in the course of analysis itself. The focus is on a deep understanding of the meanings of more or less implicit arguments, trying to made them explicit with rigorous content description and interpretation and appealing to a non-positivistic philology analysis of the primary sources.