Ancient Voices in a Secular Age: Classical Authors and the Studia Humanitatis

Submitted on August 25, 2015, to Professor Ben Lockerd as part of the doctoral course, LIT 7324 Literary Analysis: Great Ideas, Authors, and Writings.

Studies in classical literature, such as Plato's Republic (Book X), Ion, and Phaedrus, Aristotle's Poetics, Horace's The Art of Poetry, and Plotinus's On Intellectual Beauty, articulate foundational principles later recovered by Renaissance humanists and systematized into the studia humanitatis.[1] Secondary works by modern umanisti such as David Lyle Jeffrey and Gregory Maillet apply the rudimentary principles of humanitatis in “Literature and Truth” (chapter 1) and “Theological Aesthetics and Christian Literary Criticism” (chapter 2).[1][2]  

The ideas proposed by Plato (ca. 427–347 B.C.E.), Aristotle (384–322 B.C.E.), Horace (65–8 B.C.E.), Plotinus (204–270 C.E.) and Jeffrey and Maillet (2011) represent epochs in literary history forming a partial corpus from which I, as a modern umanista, gain ideological perspective being transliterated (or not) into a post-modern, secular world.[3]

The following visualization situates these thinkers in their historical sequence, highlighting the continuity from classical sources through Renaissance humanism to modern criticism, showing how their ideas were transmitted and reframed across epochs into the studia humanitatis and beyond.

Plato: Forms, Imitation, and Divine Inspiration

Plato teaches that the “one who is the maker of all the works of all other workmen” (the craftsman or δημιουργός) is to be preferred rather than the one who imitates the works of other men.[4] In essence, the imitator is inauthentic while the originator is authentic.

Plato warns against being too narrow in learning and perspective.[5] Ion is an expert on quoting the lines of Homer but does not understand the meaning of the lines in Homer’s work. Even more limiting is his lack of knowledge and disinterest in any other poet. Plato further explains that Ion’s ability is not rooted in knowledge (epistēmē) but in divine inspiration (enthousiasmos), which for Plato underscores the distinction between technical skill and ecstatic possession.

Plato emphasizes[5][6] that those who love wisdom are mindful of the art of writing, discourse, and rhetorical skill.[6] In Platonic thought, wisdom (σοφία) is not embodied in human art or skill, but in the transcendent realm of the Forms, with the Form of the Good as the highest principle.

The one who loves wisdom (φιλοσοφία) has interest in the finer arts of learning.[8] Subsequently, in seeking the finer arts, the lover of wisdom, the philosopher, seeks alignment with truth and the Good rather than mere imitation.[7][8] The philosopher who allows the mind to expand through the reading of poetry engages the finer arts in learning.

Aristotle: Universals, Probability, and Poetic Truth

Aristotle observes that the “poet writes not of particular events but of things as they might occur,” thus privileging universals over particulars.[9] Thus, the poet is not merely an imitator of reality but instead represents universal themes based on probability and necessity.

In essence, the imitator, like “a painter or any maker of likenesses... must imitate things that were in the past, or are now, or that people say and think to be or those things that ought to be.”[11]

Horace: Wit, Decorum, and the Ars Poetica

Horace reminds me of the pithy writings of Erasmus.[12] His style is quick-witted with a proverbial flair. Horace writes with an ironic verve that invites comparison to Erasmus, though in a very different historical and cultural register.

He writes of a human head, a horse, a discolored fish, dolphins in the woods, boars on waves, Neptune at home on the land, a merchant farming the green land, a phlegmatic old man, Medea cooking up human flesh, harbors crowded with ships, or royal disease of jaundice.[13] His mind is sharp with piercing arguments made at each turn of the text.

Meter and Diction: Horace and Aristotle in Dialogue

Horace and Aristotle discuss meter. Horace states, “a short syllable followed by a long is of course an iambus. It moves along fast….”[14] Aristotle comments on diction as “the act, itself, of making metrical compositions, and by melody, what is completely obvious.”[15]

Plato’s works, Ion and Phaedrus, are in the form of conversations between Socrates and the key protagonists with a quicker pace compared to that of Republic.

Plotinus: Beauty, the Intelligible, and Ascent to the One

Plotinus extends this Platonic tradition by locating beauty in the intellectual realm beyond the sensible world, urging the soul to ascend toward the One. Though treated briefly here, his contribution underscores the continuity of the classical search for transcendence.

Classical Voices in the Postmodern World

For an umanista seeking clarity of ideas in a post-modern, secular world, the works of these authors help provide a broader ideological perspective than I had exposure to previously. Rather than relics of a bygone literary order, these authors remain active interlocutors in the intellectual tradition. Their works form a continuous dialogue across epochs, shaping the studia humanitatis and sustaining the pursuit of wisdom.[9][10]