Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Charles Olson’s "Aristotle & Augustine" is a brief yet complex meditation on philosophy and the nature of understanding, particularly the limitations of interpreting earlier thinkers through later frameworks. In this minimalistic verse, Olson suggests that both Aristotle and Augustine, two towering figures in Western thought, "misunderstood" Anaximander, one of the pre-Socratic philosophers whose work dealt with the origins of existence and the nature of the cosmos. This misunderstanding, according to Olson, caused Aristotle and Augustine to "beta" themselves—a phrasing that might imply they became mere prototypes or lesser versions of what they could have been, constrained by a fundamental error in their philosophical foundations.

Anaximander, an early Greek philosopher, is known for his concept of the "apeiron," or the boundless, a formless, indefinite principle that he posited as the origin of all things. Anaximander’s ideas were radical in their abstraction, as he moved away from mythological explanations and sought a more abstract, cosmological principle that encompassed the totality of existence. His thought represents a shift towards speculative reasoning, embracing the unknown and unknowable as intrinsic to the structure of reality. In this light, Olson’s claim that Aristotle and Augustine “misunderstood” Anaximander might be suggesting that both later philosophers failed to fully grasp or integrate this profound aspect of boundlessness into their respective systems.

Aristotle, with his systematic approach to philosophy, emphasized categorization, logic, and empirical observation. His work attempted to define and confine reality within structured categories, such as his concept of substance and form. Augustine, on the other hand, was a foundational Christian theologian who integrated Platonic philosophy with Christian doctrine. Augustine’s emphasis was on the moral and metaphysical order of the world, drawing strict distinctions between the material and the divine, and framing existence within the context of sin, redemption, and divine purpose. In their focus on categorization (Aristotle) and moral structure (Augustine), both thinkers might be seen as imposing limitations on the open-ended, indeterminate nature that Anaximander suggested with his idea of the "apeiron."

Olson’s use of the term "beta'd themselves" can be read as suggesting that, by confining their philosophies to rigid structures, Aristotle and Augustine limited their intellectual potential. "Beta" often denotes an early, unfinished version of something, implying that they remained partial or incomplete as philosophers by not fully engaging with the concept of the infinite or boundless that Anaximander proposed. This interpretation frames their work as inherently flawed or restrained, reduced to prototypes or "beta" versions of what philosophy could have been had they embraced a more open-ended and fluid view of reality.

The brevity of the poem, its compressed language, and its gnomic quality reflect Olson’s own affinity with fragmentary and enigmatic forms of expression, often found in pre-Socratic thought. Olson, influenced by the open-field poetics of modernism, often worked against structured, closed interpretations, preferring to evoke rather than to explain. By distilling this philosophical critique into a few lines, he creates a "gnomic obscurity" that invites contemplation rather than definitive interpretation, mirroring the open-ended nature of Anaximander’s own ideas.

In "Aristotle & Augustine," Olson is not merely critiquing two figures in Western philosophy; he is also making a broader statement about the nature of intellectual and philosophical development. By misunderstanding Anaximander’s notion of the boundless, Aristotle and Augustine might symbolize a wider tendency within Western thought to impose structure where ambiguity and openness might be more fruitful. In Olson’s view, this may suggest that true wisdom lies not in categorization or moral frameworks but in embracing the infinite, the undefined, and the primordial vastness of existence—a perspective that aligns with Olson’s larger poetics and his commitment to breaking traditional forms and allowing for new, expansive ways of thinking.

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