The Paradox of Creative Agency

Elliot Samuel Paul (Queen's University)

Plato advances the thesis that the poet is a passive vessel inspired by a muse. Aristotle replies with the antithesis that the poet creates through skilled activity. The synthesis comes from a lesser-known figure called “Longinus” (1st century C.E.): like Plato, he sees poets as passively inspired, though by natural genius rather than a muse; yet, like Aristotle, he acknowledges the necessity of skill. Longinus also highlights a paradox in poetic genius—what is intended appears natural, and what is natural appears intended. Immanuel Kant is influenced by Longinus but, with his theory of agency, he sharpens the paradox: (i) we deserve praise for what we do, not for what merely happens to us; (ii) the inspired origination of ideas is something that happens to the genius, not something she actively does; and yet (iii) the genius merits distinctive acclaim precisely for her inspired originality. I call this the Paradox of Creative Agency. After tracing the historical roots of this paradox, I will outline steps toward resolving it.