Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Letras WHAT IS POETIC ATTENTION Bernardo Manzoni Palmeirim Doutoramento em Teoria da Literatura 2014 Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Letras WHAT IS POETIC ATTENTION Bernardo Manzoni Palmeirim Tese orientada pelo Professor Miguel Tamen (Programa de Teoria da Literatura, Universidade de Lisboa) e pelo Professor Brett Bourbon (Department of English, University of Dallas), especialmente elaborada para a obtenção do grau de doutor em Teoria da Literatura 2014 Acknowledgments I would like to thank Mariana and my family for their love and support; my friends for not giving up on me despite my spending less and less time with them because I had to read, and write this; and Professors Miguel Tamen and Brett Bourbon for their kind guidance and prescriptions of food for thought. Lisbon, February 26th, 2014 1 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................ 1 Abbreviations ....................................................................................................................................... 5 Resumo alargado em português ............................................................................................................ 7 O que é ‗atenção poética‘ .................................................................................................................................... 7 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 10 What is ‗poetic attention‘ .................................................................................................................................. 10 Chapters Overview ............................................................................................................................................ 13 Future work ........................................................................................................................................................ 15 Philosophical Contextualization ...................................................................................................................... 16 Universals and Particulars, Holism and Logos .............................................................................. 16 Aesthetics and Ethics ................................................................................................................. 18 Style in Philosophy ..................................................................................................................... 22 Prologue ............................................................................................................................................. 27 Chapter 1 – Attention & Therapy ....................................................................................................... 29 Simone Weil and Attention .............................................................................................................................. 29 Philosophy as therapy ....................................................................................................................................... 29 Logotherapy ........................................................................................................................................................ 31 Conversion and Nausea .................................................................................................................................... 37 Inspiration, Grace and Beauty ......................................................................................................................... 41 Motive for Metaphor ......................................................................................................................................... 47 Weil‘s ―Our Father‖ .......................................................................................................................................... 48 Temporality in therapy: lysis and crisis ............................................................................................................. 50 The language of the heart ................................................................................................................................. 51 Abstraction in Writing ....................................................................................................................................... 58 Chapter 2 – Attention & Discipline .................................................................................................... 61 Prosoche & Procheiron ............................................................................................................................................ 61 Distractions ......................................................................................................................................................... 64 Obedience to Necessity .................................................................................................................................... 69 Conscience .......................................................................................................................................................... 88 Chapter 3 – Attention & Perception ................................................................................................... 93 3 Presence and anima: being and beings ............................................................................................................ 93 Groundlessness .................................................................................................................................................. 99 Immortality ...................................................................................................................................................... 102 The 6th Sense .................................................................................................................................................... 106 The light of nous poietikos ................................................................................................................................ 110 Logos spermatikos ............................................................................................................................................... 119 Anima and the Imagination ........................................................................................................................... 122 The Metaphor as a Primitive Impression .................................................................................. 125 The Garden .............................................................................................................................. 126 Understanding a poem ................................................................................................................................... 134 Chapter 4 – Attention to Words ...................................................................................................... 137 Writing and the Myth of Theuth .................................................................................................................. 137 The Charmides ................................................................................................................................................ 138 The Cure: Sophrosyne & Pharmakon ............................................................................................... 138 The Mask of Irony.................................................................................................................... 139 The Elenchus ........................................................................................................................... 143 The Delphic riddle ................................................................................................................... 147 Words: Duality in Oneness ....................................................................................................... 150 The Epilogue ............................................................................................................................ 154 Mask and myth ................................................................................................................................................ 158 Another Epilogue ........................................................................................................................................... 160 Works Cited ..................................................................................................................................... 161 4 Abbreviations Aristotle DA: De Anima Nussbaum, Martha NE: Nichomachean Ethics LK: Love‘s Knowledge PN: Parva Naturalia TD: The Therapy of Desire Hadot, Pierre Vlastos, Gregory PWL: Philosophy as a Way of Life IM: Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher SS: Socratic Studies Heidegger, Martin BT / H: (H indicates standard page no. to German Weil, Simone text) GG: Gravity and Grace WCT: ―What is Called Thinking?‖ WG: Waiting for God - From Poetry, Language, Thought: BDT: ―Building Dwelling Thinking‖ Wittgenstein, Ludwig PMD: ―Poetically Man Dwells‖ CV: Culture and Value TT: ―The Thing‖ GB: Remarks on Frazer‘s Golden Bough WPF: ―What are Poets For?‖ LC: Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Belief James, William LE: Lecture on Ethics PP: Principles of