Despite the deep connection that the two poles of poetry and philosophy have known throughout cultural history, the relationship between them was marred by some confusion, especially when Plato expelled the poets from his republic, and Ibn Rushd restricted their presence there in “The Mosques of Plato’s Politics.” Poetry is one of the city's assets, while philosophy is its perfection. Does this mean that there is a disconnect between them?
We do not know of people who lack poetry, even if they lack philosophy in its industrial sense, as we found peoples who included poetry in their practical wisdom, and we found them resorting to poetry to express the feelings and words of their hearts, to broadcast the longings and sublimity of their souls, and to reveal the sweetness and tenderness of their emotions. No nation is without a poetic saying. The first wisdom of the East was poetic, and the Epic of Gilgamesh is a witness to that. The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer were the foundation of wisdom for the Greeks, and the Arabs had an unparalleled track in the field of poetry.
As for philosophy, it is closely linked to the city, and no philosophy was known outside the scope of civilization. Rather, Descartes considered that the measure of a nation’s civilization is measured by the extent to which correct philosophizing is widespread in it, and that is because philosophy is a luxury and not a necessity such as food, housing, and money in general, and even if it is like poetry in this way Meaning, but life without it is possible, as evidenced by the fact that not all civilizations knew philosophy in the sense that we understand it today, while we did not find a people who had devoid of saying poetry, this poetry that turns into singing and singing.
Indeed, philosophy is perfection, but what is perfection is more important than what is necessary. What is necessary nourishes the body, and through it life is sustained, and every one, by his nature, instinct, and nature, seeks it. As for philosophy, through it the essence of man is improved, and through it his humanity is perfected, and in this way it is only accepted by those who Free yourself from the worries of life. Philosophy is against nature because it seeks to purify it, in Plato’s words. Therefore, throughout its long history, only those with high aspirations and souls who longed for human perfection and aspire to achieve its humanity in its utmost goals were interested in philosophy.
The Muslims were not far from this goal, as their kings aspired to learn philosophy, as was the case with Al-Ma’mun in the East and Yusuf bin Abdul-Mu’min in the Maghreb. Philosophical thought gained a lot from this care, as Al-Kindi was the first philosopher to live under Al-Ma’mun, and Ibn Tufayl and Ibn Rushd was the greatest of the two philosophers who lived under Abu Ya’qub, but this difference between poetry and philosophy was not a link between them:
Firstly, because poetry provides the necessary tools for every philosophical contemplation, which is language. It is difficult for someone who is not trained in the poetic language to understand and write philosophical texts. Therefore, we find philosophers among the people who read poetry the most. Ibn Rushd memorized the collections of Al-Mutanabbi and Abu Tammam, and Islamic philosophers used to recite poetry. And some of them expressed it with eloquent Tajweed.
Secondly, because the wisdom of poets often became tightly structured ideas in the discourse of philosophers, and we have evidence of this in Heidegger’s relationship with the poet Holderen. Some even argue that the emergence of Greek philosophy was based on giving a rational character to Homer’s poetry, which are the poems that had the merit On the emergence of Greece linguistically and historically.
Encouraging poetic speech is a form of creating a public cultural space in which practical wisdom is disseminated, and the accumulation of this wisdom is enough to create an open mentality that aspires to what is best. In addition to that, poetry frees the individual from many of the constraints that cannot be a philosophical statement without it. With it.
*Director of the Center for Philosophical Studies at Mohammed bin Zayed University for Human Sciences
#Poetry #philosophy