Abstract

The contributors to this volume all argue that poetry is a tool for epistemic achievement, and that Emily Dickinson uses poetry both to understand the world and to advocate for poetry as a tool of understanding. Many also argue that Dickinson offers a distinctive construal of knowledge, as a continual process of grappling with a world that transcends complete grasp, through daily cognitive, emotional, and practical labor. While some aspects of the resulting portrait fit the stereotype of Dickinson as a reclusive poet observing “small moments” in nature and in her own mental life, the Dickinson we encounter here is decidedly more determined, argumentative, and hopeful than that stereotype allows. This not only re-writes our conception of Dickinson; it provides lessons for philosophy, by offering alternative characterizations of what knowledge is, and of the methodologies through which it can be achieved.