Philosophy and Poetry

When: Monday, November 16, 2026
Time: Reception 5:00–5:30 pm, panel discussion 5:30–7:00 pm
Where: Kittredge Central, N114 Multipurpose A & B
In-person registration
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About the Lecture

Philosophy and poetry have been at war since ancient times: life to one as death to the other. Though some writers bleat that, really, philosophy and poetry get along just fine, the hard thought of Plato remains for us to face: The poets’ claims to knowledge are immoral when they’re false, and dangerous when they’re true. If artists at their deepest have some special, privileged access to reality, then how can philosophy account for art, much less accept it? And poets, as the artists who undertake what is thought the highest use of words, are a problem around which philosophy has circled for millennia.

About the Panelists

Dana Gioia — former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, National Book Award winner, and poet laureate of California

A.E. Stallings — Pulitzer Prize finalist and Professor of Poetry at Oxford University

Joseph Bottum — Visiting Scholar of Conservative Thought at CU’s Benson Center

Related Event

The following evening, join Dana Gioia and A.E. Stallings for an evening of poetry readings at Trident Booksellers and Cafe. Details here.