Observations On Perception

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Can our thoughts ever express absolute truth.  Or are they always only approximations of reality.

In The Republic (circa 380 BCE), Plato (428–347 BCE) examined the value of didactic literature, particularly its theological and rhetorical dimensions.  At the same time he noted that there is an ancient quarrel between philosophy and poetry (Republic, Book V, 607b5–6).

From the standpoint of Platonic dialectic, poetry appears problematic because it relies upon metaphor.  For Plato poetic language risks functioning as a form of disguise that conceals rather than reveals reality.  If truth must be reached through philosophical inquiry, then poetry would appear incapable of transmitting divine truths.

This interpretation extended throughout the Greco Roman traditions of Europe and persisted well into the medieval period.  Literary expression often developed in tension with religious doctrine, despite the fact that religious thought itself relied heavily on symbolic language.

Beginning in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, however, the great Italian writers Dante Alighieri (1265–1321), Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374), and Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375) began to articulate a more humanizing conception of literature.  Drawing upon Platonic philosophy, they affirmed metaphor not as deception but as a meaningful instrument of insight.

Although deeply influenced by classical antiquity, these thinkers were equally concerned with developing new literary tendencies capable of moving beyond inherited traditions.  Their work would later be associated with what historians call the Renaissance.  This period marked the emergence of modern literature through a renewed metaphysical confidence in the expressive power of poetry.

In De vulgari eloquentia (circa 1302), Dante Alighieri undertook a systematic analysis of linguistic registers and literary styles.  In practice however his attention gravitated toward what he described as the tragic or sublime style.  Dante examined particularly the poetry of the Sicilian School and the tradition of love poetry cultivated by the Stilnovisti.

Within this framework Dante acknowledged that poetry could also transmit divine truth.  Allegorical expression, while aesthetically pleasing, could simultaneously serve a didactic purpose.  Through the poetic representation of human passions, moral and spiritual insight could become accessible to readers.

Francesco Petrarca addressed the interpretative function of allegory in medieval poetry in Le Familiari, Letter X, 4 (1349).  For Petrarch allegory provided a bridge between theological and poetic discourse.  In his view poetry originated in a distinctive use of language capable of addressing the divine.

Giovanni Boccaccio developed this defense of poetry further while also dedicating careful biographical attention to Dante.  Situating himself within a long tradition of interpreting both sacred and secular texts, Boccaccio pursued what he regarded as a second level of meaning embedded within literary works.

In his defense of poetry, Boccaccio emphasized the cultural service performed by poetic expression.  His Latin treatise Genealogiae deorum gentilium libri, completed in 1360 and revised until his death in 1374, functioned as a kind of handbook for poets and readers.  It played an important role in transmitting classical mythology from the Middle Ages into the Renaissance.

Boccaccio’s defense of poetry rested on several principles.  These included its universality, its antiquity, the respect it had historically commanded among rulers, and its divine origin that distinguished it from ordinary worldly concerns.  For Boccaccio poetry united three essential elements.  Truth.  Beauty.  And imaginative fiction.

At the same time the discipline, study, and labor required of the poet did not contradict the possibility of divine inspiration or the revelation of what might be considered sublime.  Boccaccio therefore argued that even secular texts, when interpreted allegorically, could reflect moral as well as religious truth.

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