Poetry and Philosophy From Homer to Rousseau : Romantic Souls, Realist Lives

this Book Features Readings Of Over Twenty Key Texts And Authors In Western Poetry And Philosophy, Including Homer, Plato, Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare And Rousseau. Simon Haines Argues That The History Of Both Can Be Seen As A Struggle Between Two Different Conceptions Of The Self: The Romantic Vs. The Realist. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgements......Page 10 Preface......Page 11 1 Homer: Passion in the Iliad......Page 16 Antigone......Page 32 Thucydides......Page 38 Socrates and early Plato......Page 48 Plato: Meno, Phaedo, Phaedrus, Symposium......Page 51 Plato: Gorgias, Republic......Page 54 Aristotle: Organon, Physics, Metaphysics, De Anima......Page 57 Aristotle: Ethics, Politics, Poetics......Page 60 Confessions (1)......Page 68 Virgil: Aeneid IV......Page 70 Ovid......Page 72 Augustine and Platonism......Page 73 St Paul's Epistle to the Romans......Page 75 St Mark's Gospel......Page 77 Confessions (2)......Page 79 5 Aquinas and the Realist Revival......Page 86 Boethius: Consolation of Philosophy......Page 87 Abelard – and Heloise......Page 88 Aquinas: God and the soul......Page 90 Aquinas: Ethics......Page 93 Chaucer: the wife and the clerk......Page 99 Beowulf......Page 105 La Chanson de Roland......Page 106 Chrétien de Troyes and Courtly Love......Page 109 The Roman de la Rose......Page 111 Dante's Divine Comedy......Page 113 7 Renaissance, Reformation and Shakespeare's Realism......Page 124 Machiavelli......Page 125 Humanism......Page 130 Luther......Page 131 Shakespeare: Coriolanus......Page 133 Recapitulation......Page 146 Descartes' eye......Page 147 Hobbes's blobs......Page 150 Leibniz and Spinoza......Page 153 Locke's liberal self......Page 156 Vico: realism romanticised......Page 161 France: sensation and sentiment......Page 166 Britain: sympathy and sentiment......Page 169 Hume's realism......Page 175 Rousseau's romanticism......Page 178 Notes......Page 190 Bibliography......Page 212 B......Page 220 C......Page 221 H......Page 222 L......Page 223 P......Page 224 R......Page 226 S......Page 227 W......Page 228 Y......Page 229 How do human beings experience themselves? I "have" my emotions, passions or feelings, my ideas, thoughts or reasons, my memories or dreams; I "make" decisions and choices: but what is this "I" which does the "having" and the "making"? Sometimes philosophers make this question explicit in their work. But often they don't, and poets hardly ever do. If we read some of the greatest works of poetry and philosophy in the Western world, the Iliad, Antigone, the Divine Comedy, Coriolanus, the Confessions, the Meditations, the Republic, Mark's Gospel, the Epistle to the Romans, the Prince, we usually find Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Rousseau, Augustine, Plato or Machiavelli simply working with a conception of the "self". For many of them this "I" is something like a nucleus, an inner point out of which decisions and reasoning just issue forth: the feelings, memories etc. are all "outside" it, like a kind of envelope. And other people have equivalent centres of self. But for other writers there is no nucleus of this kind; all the passions, ideas, memories and reasons together, even the decisions and choices, just are the self. I am my emotions, ideas and decisions. To an extent I also am other selves; they and their passions and ideas are not always so distinct from me and mine. This book explores a dozen or more of these great works to see which writer thinks which, and why this might be important This accessible and jargon-free book features readings of over 20 key texts and authors in Western poetry and philosophy, including Homer, Plato, Beowulf , Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare and Rousseau. Simon Haines presents a thought-provoking and theoretically aware account of Western literature and philosophy, arguing that the history of both can be seen as a struggle between two different conceptions of the self: the 'romantic' (or dualist) vs the 'realist' or ('extended'). This accessible and jargon-free book features readings of over 20 key texts and authors in Western poetry and philosophy, including Homer, Plato, Beowulf, Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare and Rousseau. Haines presents a theoretically aware account of Western literature and philosophy. Haines from Australian National University, ACT