Inspirations

Thinking about the conception of this project, I am drawn back to a very particular point in my graduate studies at the New School for Social Research, to a moment which has remained with me as the years have progressed and my philosophical journey has crystallised. That moment was during a lecture given by my professor, Claudia Baracchi, whom I had come to admire for her intellectual elegance, insight, and inspiration concerning Plato's Ion. Socrates is questioning Ion, the rhapsode, about the nature of his skill in interpreting poetry and, by extension, the source of the poet's gift – whether it be wisdom or inspiration. Socrates then presents an image of the nature of inspiration:

Inspiration extends from the divine through the poet to the listener herself, a vibratory chain that reaches to the very core of one's being. Thinking about certain melodies that had haunted me, or words that had moved me, this image seemed to ring true, as an image that encompassed more than just the poetic. I began to think of this as an image of my experience of philosophy. Of course, this dialogue is meant to separate the task of the poet and the philosopher. The poet's poeticising is no art, in the sense of technēas knowledge about the nature of that which is spoken, but an affective connection, a channelling of elusive and vertiginous elements and forces.