A Brief Study of the Philosophy of T. S. Eliot

Reevaluating T.S. Eliot's Philosophy of Tradition and Art

Abstract

Most readers of Eliot are misled by Eliot's appraisal of the tradition to posit that Eliot is a conservative. What adds to the credence is the obvious and not what undercuts it. Eliot, thus, has been read out of context. As a youngman, Eliot in his early criticism tends to miss themark of deconstruction, but since he is aware of the dialectic of the past and present, he soon gets back to the path of equivocation. For instance, in theessay ' Tradition and the Individual Talent', he gives the impression as iftradition is prior, more significant than the individual. In fact he saysTradition is a matter of wider significance. It cannot be inherited and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour. 6Similarly, he says No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, My Appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone you must set him, for comparison and contrast among the dead. 7 But soon, afterwards, he also says Thenecessity that he shall conform, that he shall cohere is not one-sided what happens when a new work of art is created is something that happenssimultaneously to all the works of art which preceded it.8