There are several parallels between the ideas presented in Plato's Socratic dialogue Meno and the ideas suggested by Walt Whitman's poetry in the first edition of his work Leaves of Grass. Grass. Although the Meno is presented as a work of philosophy and the 1855 edition Leaves of Grass (Leaves) is a work of poetry, the ideas presented in each of them have certain points in common with the 'other. Gay Wilson Allen characterized Leaves as a "program poem" (Allen 120), meaning that the poet had a set of ideas to communicate although Allen quotes Whitman as saying that the poems were. written from "unconscious or mostly unconscious intentions", the poet was also not aiming for "art or aesthetics" (120), so the ideas presented in the poems can be analyzed under. an angle not only poetic, but philosophical. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”. '?Get the original essayIn the Socratic dialogues, a central thought advanced by Plato is rather abstract, called in Greek anamnesis (Silverman, bibliography). It is the memory of knowledge from a source other than that which can be learned in this life. It is essentially a claim that earthly knowledge has a supernatural, otherworldly, or at least immaterial source. Plato relates that Socrates first and most convincingly explains this in the dialogue called Meno, named after the eminent Thessalian to whom Socrates addresses most of his arguments. The topic of this dialogue was originally virtue, but through the process of elimination, the speakers agreed that virtue is a kind of knowledge or wisdom. The question that remains however is how to obtain this knowledge or wisdom. Socrates and his companions agree that “virtue is acquired neither by nature nor by teaching. He who possesses it obtains it by divine dispensation without thinking about it” (Hamilton, Cairns, 383). Another question is how this divine dispensation is obtained? This leads to a central philosophical thought that Plato and Whitman share; namely reincarnation. Socrates stated his belief in reincarnation earlier in the Meno, referring to a slave boy who discovered certain principles of geometry, not by having learned them, but who was led there by careful questioning from Socrates. "Either he acquired at a given moment the knowledge that he now possesses, or he has always possessed it. If he has always possessed it, he must always have known it; if on the contrary he has acquired in an earlier time, this cannot be the case have been in this life” (370) This idea recurs throughout The Leaves of Grass of 1855. Whitman refers to reincarnation more or less obliquely to several. times, but he states it bluntly in the "Song of Myself" section: "And as for you, life, I think you are the remains of many deaths,/I am doubtless dead ten myself." a thousand times before" (The Library of America 86). At the very end of "Song of Myself", the poet proclaims "If you still want me, seek me under your soles" (88). At the end of " Sleepers", while the poet flew all night and day, using day and night as metaphors for death and life, he says: "I will duly spend the day, O my mother, and as it is must. I will not return to you;/You will not make the dawn more surely than you will make me new again,/The womb will not give birth to the child in its time more surely than I will be born of you in my time" (117). But how does this fit in with Socrates' idea?according to which, during death (or, at the same time, before birth), the soul of the human being is in communion with all true knowledge and therefore only needs to "remember" it at during his life? or his life? The answer lies in how Whitman somewhat believed in transcendentalism. Allen explains: “…the message he tries to convey through the arrangement of his poems and the titles of his groups is that all physical life rests on an invisible but strongly felt spiritual world (an doctrine of the American Transcendentalists)” (69) . Since there is a reincarnation of souls and a "strongly felt" and influential spiritual world, could not all knowledge, or at least some knowledge and intuition, be acquired in this passage between life and intuition. and death? Whitman speaks of transcendental experiences in life, where he gains access to special knowledge or wisdom. This is a Platonic idea that wisdom is “obtained through experience, although it is not derived directly from experience” (Russell 136). The knowledge that Whitman gains from having experiences with the transcendent, not necessarily from interacting with the world itself, may be motivated by the world, but Whitman shows that it is the world that draws him into this transcendent experience , and not what he learns. comes from the real material world. Although Whitman is definitely in love with the experiences of the material world, he seems to suggest that these experiences and the reasoning of the world are not what wisdom is. Rather, they are indications of wisdom, what Plato would call “remembrance” (Hamilton, Cairns 370). Through a sort of remembrance of Christ's crucifixion (although he does not say Jesus' name), Whitman shows that not only will he be reincarnated in the future, but that he has been others in the past. separate look at my own crucifixion and my bloody coronation!I remember....I take back the overestimated fraction,The rock tomb multiplies what was entrusted to it...or to any tomb,The corpses rise ....the nicks heal...the fasteners roll away. I advance with restored power, one of a mean endless procession” (71). Whitman began this by saying that he had been “stunned” (70). This experience, or flashback, to a previous life, left him with “restored power”. We must assume that this is some sort of transcendental or mystical experience, in which Whitman is remembering a past life, or perhaps someone else's past life. Is this the same as Socrates' assertion that true knowledge or wisdom is acquired outside of life and is only remembered in it? It is not as clear in Whitman, but he suggests a transcendent wisdom sparked by sensory experience "Swift wind! Space! My soul! Now I know that what I have guessed is true; What I have guessed while strolling on the grass, What I guessed while I was lying alone in my bed... and again while I was walking on the beach under the pale morning stars (59) This problem of the. source of knowledge, Whitman addresses it near the end of "Song of Myself". "It is time to explain... let us rise./ What is known, I strip away....I throw all men and all women with me in the unknown./The clock indicates the moment...but what does eternity indicate? (79), but he then addresses more directly the question of knowledge acquired in after- or pre-life. In the distance I see the huge first Nothing, the steam coming out of death's nostrils, I know I was even there... .I always waited without being seen, And I slept while God carried me through the lethargic haze, And I took my time... and suffered no injury from thefetid carbon. For a long time I was held close... long and long. preparations for me,Faithful and friendly the arms that helped me (80)Here Whitman describes the period before his birth, perhaps after the death of his previous life. He describes a time when he was “sleeping” and “all forces were constantly employed to complete and delight me” (80). This is similar to the sequence of the slaves at auction (123-124), when the poet argues that the "globe was preparing" for quintillion years to create this man or that woman. His idea of ​​the universe having a will, however, does not include the universe transmitting that knowledge to him, whether within this lifetime or between lifetimes. Whitman would say at most: "I walk in a pleasant and well-adjusted way,/I cannot define where I walk, but I know that it is good,/The whole universe indicates that it is good." (106). Whitman does not seem to do so, at least by 1855.Leaves of Grass, agrees with Plato that all knowledge is acquired between life and death and is remembered during life. What Whitman will be most committed to is the possession of a kind of transcendent knowledge, acquired from the universe and obtained by being pushed by the material world into a state where this knowledge can be acquired. This is an important distinction between the two belief systems. Whitman may claim to have "the origin of all poems" (28), implying that he has universal and important knowledge, but he does not tell us where this knowledge comes from. Nor will he explain how exactly this is achieved, but simply that nature is the vehicle of knowledge. At most he will say: “You must listen to all points of view and filter them yourself” (28). In fact, in an interesting parallel between the Meno and Leaves of Grass, Socrates and Whitman address children and discuss the nature of knowledge. . The parable of the slave boy is presented as proof of Socrates' argument about anamnesis, by the slave's new understanding of geometric truths by being questioned, rather than being taught (described above) . The child and the grass sequence in Whitman's poem, ("A child said, What is grass? He brought it to me with his hands full;/How could I answer the 'child?...I don't know what he is anymore.' (31)) shows Whitman's reluctance to grasp knowledge and illustrates a main difference between Plato and Whitman. Both share the idea of ​​an important spiritual world and the recurrence of multiple lives for each soul. Plato and Whitman may have had similar cosmic worldviews, but epistemologically they were very different. Although Plato and Whitman agree that "the soul must be immortal" (Hamilton, Cairns 371) and "Is it wonderful that I am immortal?" Since everyone is immortal” (The Library of America 141), they disagree on what is happening. during the time between life and death. They also disagree on how or whether knowledge is gained or lost during this time. There are several other, less central, ideas that recur in both Meno and Leaves of Grass. One is the interesting verbal recurrence of “virtue” and “manly.” "Manly" appears six times in the 1855 Leaves of Grass, including the preface. It is usually interesting, in conjunction with a description of something good or virtuous. The root word virtue is the Latin vir, meaning “man” (Skeat 546). The word entered the English language to specifically describe "manly" things, which was an accepted explanation of virtue at the time. To adhere to the qualities of manliness was to have virtue and to be virtuous.(Note, however, that in Plato's text the Greek word for virtue has a completely different origin.) The whole of Meno is concerned with the definition of virtue. Socrates even goes so far as to explain that different types of virtue are better in men than in women. "...the virtue of a man consists in managing the affairs of the city competently, and in helping his friends and harming his enemies while taking care not to harm himself. Or if you want virtue of a woman, it is easily described She must be a good housewife, attentive to her provisions and obedient to her husband” (Hamilton, Cairns, 355). masculine and feminine? Whitman takes the time, like Socrates, to describe the differences in virtue between men and women. In "I Sing the Body Electric", Whitman repeatedly mentions different things he admires in men and women. women. The male is neither less the soul nor more. known universe is in him, contempt suits him well and appetite and challenge suit him, the greatest passions, supreme happiness and supreme sorrow suit him perfectly. . . . pride is for him, the fully deployed pride of man is soothing and excellent for the soul; knowledge suits him. . . . he still loved it. . . . he puts everything to the test of himself, (122) Active, powerful and aggressive virtues suit the male. Even “contempt,” a generally negative word, is considered a virtue. Compare this with the woman who also possesses “all the qualities” but “tempers them” (121). The adjectives he uses to describe the woman are in direct opposition to those of the male. Socrates and Whitman largely agree on the difference between the virtues desirable in men and women. When Whitman first uses the word "virtuous" in Leaves, it is to describe a young man he loves, but who is not virtuous in the traditional sense. meaning of the word. The boy I love, the same becomes a man not by derivative power but in his own right, Wicked, rather than virtuous by conformity or fear, Loved by his beloved, savoring his steak well, Unrequited love or a slight cut, worse than a wound, first choice for riding a horse, fighting, hitting the bull's eye, sailing a skiff, singing a song or playing the banjo (The Library of America 83) If this passage is analyzed and by In relation to Socrates' comparison of sex-specific virtues above, some of Socrates' same manly virtues are also mentioned in this boy's description. Whitman's boy-man is somewhat belligerent, as Socrates describes his virtuous man, and both men have the ability and propensity to protect themselves from the "affronts" of other men. This defense against other men seems to be an important part of masculinity for both Socrates and Whitman. Furthermore, self-determination, or autonomy, appears to be a virtue for both Socrates and Whitman. Whitman's boy "becomes a man not through a derivative power but in his own right." Socrates' virtuous man manages the affairs of the city and, more importantly, helps his friends, hurts his enemies, and defends himself. Self-sufficiency is an agreed upon masculine virtue for both Plato and Whitman. The next time Whitman uses “virtuous,” however, he uses a poetic conceit. In "A Song for Occupations" (89), he compares the effectiveness of the message of his poetry to the works of a "charitable director or landlord." "If I were for you as your boss, employing you and paying you, would that satisfy you?/The learned, the virtuous and thebenevolent, and the usual conditions;/A man like me, and never the usual conditions." He asks his readers what they are trying to get from him. He does not ask readers to acquire "practical and ornamental educations ", but rather to take it as they find it. He tells his readers that he will be "on par" with them. He is opposed here to the "virtuous." others, who writes his poetry for people to read. He does not present himself as "virtuous", as a school teacher arriving in a new town might hope to be described. Whitman referred to virtue (which has a slightly different connotation than virtue, which he mentions briefly in "Song of Myself" in conjunction with evil) in a negative light Like Socrates in the Meno, Whitman proposes. no fixed definition of virtue It only tells us what is not the case, or gives us examples of lack of virtue. This is very similar to the arguments about virtue in Meno. The group (Socrates, Meno and Anytus) finally, through many arguments over the definition of virtue, decided: "Although the nature of virtue as a whole is still in question, do not assume that you can explain to anyone. in terms of his part, or by any similar type of explanation; you say this and that about virtue, but what is it? There is no definition of virtue in the Meno. Both Socrates and Whitman seem able to recognize it, as when Whitman says that "the universe says it is good," but they cannot and do not attempt to describe virtue exactly. Virility, as linked to virtue and separated from it, shows more often in the Leaves of 1855 than virtue. Whitman mentions the word "manly" four times in the poetic text, and three out of four times it refers to something good. Although "manly" has a generally good connotation in English, it seems that for Whitman it was a quality much easier to admire than the vague idea of ​​"virtue." The fact that the words have similar root meanings may have significance for Whitman, and he applies the word "manly" in constructions where the word "virtue" or "virtuous" might well suffice. In “Song of Myself,” he describes “manly wheat” as something he could worship (51). In this section, it is clear that strong and healthy things in nature are to be revered for Whitman, but that things that have masculinity, both generally and sexually referentially, are to be admired. Similarly, in a “Song for Occupations,” Whitman admires “manly exercises” (97). At the end of "Song of the Answerer", Whitman asks: "You think it would be nice to be the writer of melodious verses, Well, it would be nice to be the writer of melodious verses; But what are verses beyond the fluid character you might have?” ....or beyond fine manners and behavior?Or beyond a manly act or affection from an apprentice?..or from an old woman? Or a man who has been in prison or is likely to be” (132). Here Whitman uses the adjective "manly" to denote the importance of what he would call the good action (could it be virtuous action?) of an apprentice. He includes an old woman capable of manly acts. Manly is, for Whitman, a term that does not only apply to men. Finally, in “There Was a Child Went Forth,” Whitman describes a domestic scene and includes the only negative mention of the word “manly” in the poem. It must be assumed that this family scene describes, at least in part, the poet's own family. The mother at home quietly placing the dishes on the dinner table, The mother with sweet words..