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CHAPTER FOUR

THE OF CLASSICISM

In this chapter we continue our investigation of classicism by position- ing it philosophically. What philosophers and other authors influenced it, and to what philosophical currents did it oppose? What was the clas- sicist stance towards currents like life-philosophy, Nietzscheanism, posi- tivism, pragmatism and ? This is an interesting subject for sev- eral reasons: first, because Ortega, Benda and (to a lesser extent) Eliot were philosophers themselves and second, because it enables a better understanding of the classicist cultural criticism discussed in Chapter 6.

Before investigating the philosophical stance of classicism in general and

Eliot, Benda and Ortega in particular (§4.2), we first discuss a number of philosophers and authors that influenced classicism (§4.1).

4.1 Philosophical and other influences on classicism

Several ancient and contemporary philosophers and men of letters influ- enced classicist thinking. We discuss five authors that significantly influ- enced classicism: and , Matthew Arnold, Irving Babbitt and T.E. Hulme. For each of these it will be briefly indicated in what way and to what extent they influenced classicism in general and Eliot in particular. In §4.1.6, we consider the charge that Eliot’s classicism was heavily influenced by the French reactionary thinking of C. Maurras and others around the Action Française.

4.1.1 Plato

The classicists we investigate in this study all were indebted to Plato, as is evident from their work. Like Plato, classicism was opposed to relativism and believed in the existence of criteria and first principles of and superiority. Classicism as well shares with Plato a basically optimistic attitude: “Plato stood like a rock with his conviction that the seed of the 112 CHAPTER FOUR

1 good is to be found in everything and in the nature of being itself ”,

Jaeger writes, and in §3.3.6 we saw that classicism shared this view that every human being has a potential of development towards a ‘better self ’.

The Platonic influence on classicism has been mentioned by several scholars. Benda’s La Trahison des Clercs “rises directly out of the teachings of the Republic (..) gives the simplest and clearest example of the 2 clerky existence”, Niess writes, while Curtius mentions Hofmannsthal’s 3 “Neoplatonic mentality”. Schwartz as well notes that “Hofmannsthal 4 stuck to a Platonist world view throughout his life”. P. Scott comments on Eliot’s social criticism by making a comparison with Plato’s Republic:

“his [Eliot’s] ‘idea’ of is more like an incitement, a Platonic, even

Utopian paradigm, laid up (like Plato’s Republic) in heaven for those 5 who have the eyes to see it.”

Plato’s Republic

We now briefly turn to Plato’s Republic, since it is a work that has great significance in the context of our study, as appears from the quotations above and as will be seen repeatedly in later sections in part I as well as part II. We look at Plato’s major work not for its political ideas, but rather for its views on man and on culture in general, agreeing with

R. Waterfield that “the inner life of the individual is the primary concern of the book” and that Plato is “considerably less interested in external 6 politics than in individual psychology”.

In Republic, Plato goes into the basic question of how we should live.

Socrates is challenged by Glaucon and Adeimantus to prove that moral- ity is intrinsically good and leads to happiness. So he begins to “make a thorough enquiry into the nature of both morality and immorality, and to search out the truth about their expediency.” (58) In the answers

Socrates proposes, it becomes clear that man benefits from the acknowl-

1 W. Jaeger, Early Christianity and Greek Paideia (Harvard 1962) p. 64 2 R.J. Niess, Julien Benda (Ann Arbor 1956) p. 152 3 E.R. Curtius, Essays on European Literature (Princeton 1973) p. 167 4 E. Schwartz, ‘Hugo von Hofmannsthal as a Critic’ in: A.R. Evans (ed.), On four

Modern Humanists: Hofmannsthal, Gundolf, Curtius, Kantorowicz (Princeton 1970) p. 27 5 P.D. Scott, ‘The Social Critic and his Discontents’ in: A. Moody (ed.), The Cambridge

Companion to T.S. Eliot (Cambridge 1994) p. 61 6 Plato (trans. R. Waterfield), Republic (Oxford 1993) p. xvi, xviii. Subsequent refer- ences are inserted in the text.