Poetry as dialogue: Considerations on Plato und die Dichter by Hans-Georg Gadamer

Abstract

This paper analyzes Hans-Georg Gadamer’s interpretation of the Platonic political philosophy on his conference Plato und die Dichter (1934). The hypothesis proposed, from and beyond Gadamer's interpretation, is that in the Platonic dialogues, both philosophising and poetizing enable access to the understanding of the sacredness of justice, the political dimension of the legality of the poetic muse and the perception of the sacred as human need which remains disguised as unnecessary. On the other hand, attention will be paid to the concept of phrón?sis in relation with the human faculty of judgment and as a necessary instrument for the practical realization of humans in becoming political beings in the State.