Abstract

Maritain's notion of Poetry contains both a creative and a cognitive aspect. His developed epistemology pursues only one of these avenues, however, and leads to his notion of Poetic Knowledge. After tracing the biographical and philosophical influences on Maritain's early development, this dissertation argues that it is possible to reconstruct the undeveloped cognitive aspects of Poetry by gathering the essentially similar insights that are contained in his discussions on the perception of beauty, natural contemplation, and select passages concerning Poetry. The method of obtaining these insights is an historical/theoretical method--by considering Maritain's works from an historical perspective, the theoretical changes and developments are revealed. The development of Maritain's thought is obscured if this method is not employed. With it, however, it is possible to show that early in Maritain's writing career both sides of Aesthetic Exprience are treated by him: the knowledge proper to the creative artist and the knowledge of the one who engages the art-work appreciatively. The latter is discussed by him in his explanation of the perception of beauty. ;As Maritain's ideas develop, a progressive concentration on the knowledge proper to the creative artist occupies his attention with increasing exclusivity, leaving the cognitive aspect of Poetry undeveloped. This study argues that, by discerning the interrelation of Poetry, Beauty, and Contemplation, a reconstructed notion of Poetic Contemplation may be advanced and defended as a legitimate prolongation of Maritain's epistemology. It is a notion which provides a suitable complement to his notion of Poetic Knowledge, and enables us to make sense of that aesthetic experience which possesses a Poetic Intuition but which is not ordered to the production of a work of art, as is the case with Poetic Knowledge, but rather is ordered solely to that joy and delight which characterizes the experience of the beholder. In this fashion a significant contribution is made, not only to Maritainian scholarship, but to the field of Aesthetics as well, since it articulates an aspect of aesthetic experience that previously has not been explored in this detail from within the Thomistic tradition