The Political Uses of Poetry and the Quran according to Averroes' Middle Commentary on Aristotle's Poetics

Averroes views poetry as imitation with a view to noble or base behavior that is consequently a form of non-philosophic instruction in virtue and vice. Poetry can thus be a means of ennobling the populace, but it can also be a source of political corruption. For this reason, Averroes explains, Socrates expelled the subversive poets from the ideal city. But poetry is a weak imitation of external attitudes and behavior, not of virtue itself. Given its weakness, poetry need not be expelled, but rather tempered and directed – i.e., censored – for the sake of the limited good it can accomplish. In order for such censorship to work, it must be undertaken by people who understand what virtue is, i.e., ideally by philosophers. Yet Averroes does not say whether the Quran ennobles or corrupts the populace. On the one hand, Averroes explicitly accepts the Quran's doctrinal claim that it is not poetry, but something greater than poetry. The Quran might thus seem to be beyond the scope covered in Averroes' Middle Commentary on Aristotle's Poetics, and thus possibly beyond philosophic censorship. On the other hand, Averroes frequently cites Quranic verses in the Middle Commentary to exemplify poetic techniques. Indeed, nearly half of Averroes' numerous poetic citations are from the Quran. Accordingly, the Quran is within the scope of the Middle Commentary – either because it is poetry or because it contains some kind of poetry. Yet there is no better indication that the Quran cannot be subject to philosophic censorship than Averroes' own reluctance to assess the value of the Quran. Averroes' statement in the Decisive Treatise that the majority of the populace should not interpret the Quran but understand it literally further indicates his own unwillingness even to present a philosophical interpretation of the book. The extremely controversial question of the political status of the Quran, including the question of whether it ennobles or corrupts the populace, thus emerges as a possible source of difficulty for the possibility of philosophical rule in Muslim societies. Meeting Cancelled due to Hurricane Isaac.