References
- Primary texts
- Plato . 1982 . The Collected Dialogues, including the Letters , Edited by: Hamilton , Edith and Cairns , Huntington . Princeton University Press .
- 1970 . The New English Bible, with the Apocrypha , O.U.P., C.U.P. .
- Shrimpton , Nicholas . 85 . ‘Why Teach Eng Lit?’ . Times Educational Supplement , 31.5 : 22 – 3 .
- Feuillerat , Albert , ed. 1923 . The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney vol. 3 , 5 Cambridge Defence of Poesie in Cambridge English Classics
- 3. ibid., p. 34.
- 4. ibid., p. 34.
- Shawcross , John , ed. 1932 . Shelley's Literary and Philosophical Criticism , 164 O.U. . 5. Letter to T.. L. Peacock, 16.8.1818
- 6. Reviewing the evidence at the beginning of chapter 10 of The Open Society and its Enemies vol. 1 Karl Popper considers it seems a ‘consistent and hardly refutable interpretation’ to see Plato as ‘a totalitarian party‐politician’ (p. 149) and then adds
- But one has only to formulate this interpretation in this blunt fashion in order to feel that there is something amiss with it. At any rate, so I felt, when I had formulated it. (p. 149)
- This doubt spurred him to do more research. Yet, as the terms in which Popper expresses his misgiving themselves suggest, the feeling of unease may derive less from what Popper says about Plato than from the bold manner in which he says it. Not only traditional approval of the philosopher but also the sweet reasonableness which pervades his work seems to deprecate so harsh a judgement. Yet Popper himself is aware of how cunning and successful Plato can be in substituting style for argument (see his reply to Plato's attack on democracy, p. 35).
- 7. Defence of Poesie, p. 45.
- 8. Although the second Letter is generally recognized not to be genuine but to have been modelled on the seventh Letter by another hand.
- Popper , Karl . 1945 . Open Society and its Enemies , vol. 1 , 171 London : Routledge .
- Socrates had only one worthy successor, his old friend Antisthenes, the last of the Great Generation. Plato, his most gifted disciple, was soon to prove the least faithful. He betrayed Socrates, just as his uncles had done. These, besides betraying Socrates, had also tried to implicate him in their terrorist acts, but they did not succeed, since he resisted. Plato tried to implicate Socrates in his grandiose attempt to construct the theory of the arrested society; and he had no difficulty in succeeding, for Socrates was dead.
- Jones , G. Vaughan . 1964 . The Art and Truth of the Parables , S.P.C.K. . 10. There is a good deal of debate about this. The present writer takes a middle line conceding the explanation of the parable owes much to the allegorizing tendency of the early Church while yet maintaining that though this is probably not the exact reading Jesus himself would have given, the parable itself nevertheless calls for that kind of interpretation. See
- 11. There is a curious parallel here with a modernist poem, T. S. Eliot's The Wasteland, for, if we take it to be a description of personal and/or cultural disorder, it embodies in its very descriptive technique the chaos it describes.
- 1979 . The Genesis of Secrecy: On the Interpretation of Narrative , 33 Harvard Univ. Press . 12. Kermode provides an interesting example of this which is worth mentioning since his interpretation of this passage in St. Mark is quite opposite to the present one. Kermode sees St. Mark as ‘a strong witness to the enigmatic and exclusive character of narrative, to its property of banishing interpreters from its secret places.’; on the one hand this is a perfectly legitimate reading of the text. On the other, the book's final words seem to indicate that this reading also accords with other beliefs and perceptions formed by the world beyond books: World and book, it may be, are hopelessly plural, endlessly disappointing; we stand alone before them, aware of their arbitrariness and impenetrability, knowing that they may be narratives only because of our impudent intervention, and susceptible of interpretation only by our hermetic tricks. Hot for secrets, our only conversation may be with guardians who know less and see less than we can; and our sole hope and pleasure is in the perception of a momentary radiance, before the door of disappointment is finally shut on us. (ibid. p. 145)
- 13. I prescind from the question of the legitimacy of such positions. See page 52–3.
- Gadamer , Hans‐Georg . 1975 . Truth and Method , 331 Sheed and Ward .
- 15. Defence of Poedsie, p. 45.
- Taylor , Thomas , Raine , K. and Harper , G. Mills , eds. Thomas Taylor the Platonist, Selected Writings , 1969 452 R.K. .
- Keynes , Geoffrey , ed. Blake: Complete Writings with Variant Readings , 1974 793 O.U. . 17. Letter to Dr. Trusler, 23.8.1799
- 18. Defence of Poesie, p. 14.