Poetry as a way of knowing nature

Abstract

In   our   Western   society   it   is   taken   for   granted   that   knowledge   has   its   origin   in   perception,   and   so   the   brain   would  do  properly  the  entire  process  consisting  in  catching   what  we  usually  call  reality.  No  doubt,  human  beings  have   other   attributes   than   speculative   reason,   and,   among   them,   there   is   art,   with   its   creative   process   and   its   symbolic   and   representative   vision   which   become   what   we   call   “artistic   knowledge”   (poiesis).  This  develops  in  many  different  ways   of   art  expressions   among  which  we   find  poetry,  not  just   as   mere  versification  nor  as  a  set  of  semantic-­‐‑expressive  means, but   as   an   authentic   key   to   open   some   aspects   of   reality   known  just  through  this  poiesis  and  not  through  other  kinds   of   knowledge.   To   illustrate   this   idea,   particularly   within   Natural   Philosophy,   I   appeal   to  my   own   experience  in   the   field  of  literature  and give  some  examples  from  authors  and   texts  selected  to  this  task.