Does Poetry Have a Place in a Criminal Trial?
Today we are going to address the relevance of Plato to Illinois criminal trials. And, no, ”Plato” is not a new gyros joint at 26th and Cal. In Book III of Plato’s Republic, Socrates distinguishes between two types of poets: the ”narrative poet” and the ”imitative poet.” The narrative poet is simply the person who recites poetry from a third-party perspective. But the imitative poet actually performs the roles he represents. In other words, the narrative poet simply tells us the story of Achilles; the imitative poet, on the other hand, actually pretends to be Achilles. Socrates clearly loves the imitative poet for his ability to make us empathize with the person he is playing. The imitative poet has the power to make us empathize — to actually feel what Achilles is feeling. Socrates says that we should react to the imitative poet by ”fall[ing] on our knees before him as a man sacred, wonderful, and pleasing.” When you think about it, the criminal-trial lawyer is something like
