Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book comes from the distinction Socrates makes in the Republic when he delineates his ideal society from the insalubrious regions to which he banishes the mimetic poets. The Socratic opposition established the model of the inner space delineated through a defense against the outer. Health acquires the moral quality of ethical integrity. Correspondingly, Socratic disease constitutes any threat to that integrity, and is symptomized by ethical chaos and the dissolution of identity. The Romantics upheld the Socratic distinction of health and disease because it seemed natural to do so. The dichotomy of health and disease permeates the proclamations and justifications of these romantic figures. This dichotomy is more pervasive than such famed oppositions as organic-mechanic, nature-artifice, or imagination-reason; for the categories of health and disease direct the valuations of all these other oppositions. The book describes the roles of Wordsworth, Coleridge and Schelling in this study.