Platonic Coleridge

James Vigus

James Vigus's Platonic Coleridge gives a rigorous, scholarly, and fiercely lucid account of the complex, sometimes contradictory, dealings with Plato and the Platonic tradition that quicken Coleridge's thought. This in itself would be enough to recommend it, but it has still more to o er. It explores more searchingly than any other book I know the issue that Vigus places at the centre of Coleridge's thought, the question of the proper relationship between poetry and philosophy... This is at once an unusually sharply focused and an unusually suggestive book. It is a fine achievement. -- Modern Language Review Modern Language Review Vigus's study makes an outstanding contribution. [...] This philosophy of process, rather than product, characterizes the more profitable side of Plato; it is the reward of getting to know him that Vigus makes available in what for me are the best parts of this enlightening study. -- The Coleridge Bulletin The Coleridge Bulletin [A] prominent feature is the depth of scholarship. [...] Within the context of recent Coleridge scholarship as well as in the broader conversation about boundaries among disciplines, Platonic Coleridge is important. It explores a rare place, a place where the pathways of philosophy and poetry come together and, for a while, run parallel. -- The Wordsworth Circle The Wordsworth Circle Part of Legenda's excellent Studies in Comparative Literature series... Coleridge's response to his readings is clearly described and analysed in this well-written monograph, which should be of interest to all students of Coleridge and the reception of Platonic ideas in English literature. -- The Year's Work in English Studies The Year's Work in English Studies Vigus's central point within the volume is that Plato provided a central constructive influence upon Coleridge which has been underestimated by previous critics. ... [A]n exceedingly well crafted piece of philosophical interpretation... a wonderfully strong book which anyone interested in Coleridge's philosophical writings will find fascinating. -- The Year's Work in English Studies The Year's Work in English Studies This intelligent, enjoyable book is original and stimulating, and ought to help and challenge those scholars who see the poetic and the philosophical as mutually supportive aspects of Coleridge's thought. -- The Year's Work in English Studies The Year's Work in English Studies

• Introduction 1. Plato's 'Dear Gorgeous Nonsense': The 'Wild-minded Disciple of Socrates' 2. Coleridge's Kant: Preparer and Opponent of Platonism 3. The Ancient Quarrel between Poetry and Philosophy 4. Plato in Coleridge's Lectures on the History of Philosophy: Exoteric Lectures, Esoteric Marginalia 5. Restoring Plato's 'System': The Friend and the Opus Maximum 6. Conclusion