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<< It's the minor artists -- not artists in general -- that tend to get all defensive when philosophers tread on their turf, and it seems to me they do so chiefly because of a self-romanticizing fondness of their own work and because they lack the education and intelligence to understand philosophy, which is not easy to understand. A lack of systematic interest in philosophy may come naturally in this comfy age of specialization, but aggressive defensiveness is just comic. Most people understand what they do only in a very shallow way, and artists are no exception (Bertrand Russell said the same about mathematicians). It's a shallow artist that doesn't have a philosophy of what she does. I can't think of a single great writer who'd despise philosophy. I should say I don't mean anyone in particular: just some remarks about a mindset that may well be prevalent among poets in general. It's curious that similar attitudes toward philosophy obtains, for example, in nationalists. Something clashes there at a visceral level. (Whereas philosophers generally respect the arts and show a genuine interest in them.) By the way, screw the middle way too. If you want to understand something at the most abstract level, it's philosophy or nothing. Philip >> Philip, The Italian poet Quasimodo said that philosophers were the natural enemies of poets. He called philosophers the "inveterate card-indexers of the universe." I don't disagree with all you've said but you seem a little more in awe of philosophy than any poet need be. Philosophers ought to go in fear of poets; esp. profound ones like Stevens & those with a those with a "third eye" like Olson or Celan. Philosophy, in general, is anatomizing, dissective. Poetry works, in general, by different means: often synthetic/alchemic; ocassionally, often in the political mode, explosive; disintegrative. A certain kind of calm pervades philosophy; poets are often aggitated (Rimbaud, Plath). Our enterprise is creative; a philosopher may use creative thinking, but its thinking employed toward the endpoint of understanding (illusive as that place may be). Poets are trying to "outstrip" any attempt to understand their enterprise...and in so doing are naturally suspicious of surveying, assay, or any mapping along the way that might impede the pure impulse. But, that being said, I would recommend "The Main of Light" by Justus Buchler (American philosopher). A book that confronts & sometimes debunks many "sacred truths" & "totems" of the tribe of poets. But does so with deep respect for the art itself. Finnegan %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%