Poiesis and Cosmos

Abstract

Plato’s doubts about admitting poets to his republic are much canvassed. It should not occasion surprise that he subordinates art to morality in a dialogue which examines the nature of justice and inquires how citizens might be so educates as to be virtuous. But views advanced in the Republic loom larger than need be in discussion of Plato’s theory of art; they should be balanced with suggestions advanced in other dialogues, particularly the Timaeus. There Plato begins with what seems to be a reference to the Republic, and conducts an extensive inquiry into making. The conversation in the early part of the dialogue, about the several contributions of the interlocutors, confirms the suggestion in the Phaedrus that philosophy is a kind of music. As the inquiry into making proceeds, an interesting analogy emerges between the construction of the cosmos and the construction of explanations of it: they are both arts which require a full range of techniques. The inquiry as a whole elicits a set of suggestions about poiesis which shows that poiesis has fundamental importance for philophical investigation.