{"id":21263,"date":"2024-05-02T15:23:13","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T14:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/?p=21263"},"modified":"2026-05-11T14:32:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:32:18","slug":"poetry-and-philosophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/en\/poetry-and-philosophy\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry and Philosophy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Seventeen years before he founded the Institute of Psychosynthesis, Assagioli on poetry and philosophy: why analysis without synthesis is the great flaw of Western culture, and what philosophical poetry can do that prose argument cannot.<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Roberto Assagioli<\/strong>
Lecture delivered at the Philosophical Library, Florence, January 3, 1909.
Doc. #18451, Assagioli Archives, Florence.
Original title: Poesia e filosofia<\/em> [i]<\/span><\/span><\/a>
Translated and edited with notes by Jan Kuniholm [ii]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editorial Note<\/strong>
The abstract and contextual subtitle in this online edition have been added by the editor, Kenneth S\u00f8rensen, to support readability, navigation, and archival consistency. The original wording has not been altered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Abstract<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Roberto Assagioli was twenty years old when he delivered this lecture in Florence, opening a course of readings on philosophical poetry at the city’s Philosophical Library. Seventeen years before he would found the Institute of Psychosynthesis in Rome, the seeds of the entire system are visible. He argues for the artistic legitimacy of philosophical poetry, draws on Benedetto Croce’s aesthetics to refuse both art-for-art’s-sake and didactic moralising, defends introspection as a fully experimental scientific method, and names what would become his life’s argument: that Western culture’s worship of analysis must serve, not replace, a higher synthesis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The study of the relationships between these two most noble activities of the human spirit is one of the most important and appealing; it is, however, also difficult and complex as few others are. For to speak of philosophy and poetry one must first of all define exactly the concepts of philosophy and poetry, and such a definition presupposes among other things a profound study of the whole of aesthetics and theory of knowledge. Only this!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I certainly do not presume to make an exhaustive treatment of my chosen topic with my little energy and in the short time allotted to me. My goal is more modest. I shall only try to dispel some unfair preconceptions and some harmful misunderstandings that currently exist about the <\/span><\/span>poetry of ideas<\/span><\/span><\/em> ; showing, on the one hand, its perfect artistic legitimacy, and on the other hand, the most important reasons why the <\/span><\/span>poetry of ideas<\/span><\/span><\/em> can be an even more <\/span><\/span>complete<\/span><\/span><\/em> and effective medium of aesthetic culture, intellectual enlightenment and moral elevation than <\/span><\/span>non-explicit<\/span><\/span><\/em> poetic philosophy and non-philosophical art. But even narrowing my topic in this way, I cannot refrain from examining some issues in aesthetics and theory of knowledge.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, what do we mean by <\/span><\/span>poetry<\/span><\/span><\/em> ? The question is certainly not superfluous because \u2014 even if every intelligent person knows that by poetry we do not mean the collection of those writings that are divided into many small fragments of a certain number of syllables, with special accents or with a certain succession of long and short \u2014 there is certainly no such agreement for a “positive” definition of poetry. <\/span><\/span>[iii]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, the way through the complicated maze of aesthetics has now been facilitated for us by a wise guide: I want to allude to the masterful work of Benedetto Croce. <\/span><\/span>[iv]<\/span><\/span><\/a> Whatever one wishes to judge of the entire philosophy of Benedetto Croce (and I myself will have occasion briefly to tell you reasons why I do not seem to be able to admit certain limitations of human consciousness, as he does) \u2014 it must be acknowledged that in the field of aesthetics his work has been valuable for having brought order and clarity where previously confusion and obscurity reigned, and even worse, false light. He has given us an analysis of the aesthetic <\/span><\/span>fact <\/span><\/span><\/em>[v]<\/span><\/span><\/a> which, if not perhaps definitive, seems to me for the moment the most profound and rigorous that has been made.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n