Janine Louise Zwicky (born 10 May 1955) is a Canadian philosopher, poet, essayist, and musician. She was appointed to the Order of Canada in June 2022.

Life and career

Zwicky received her BA from the

University of Calgary {{Infobox university , name = University of Calgary , image = University of Calgary coat of arms without motto scroll.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , former ...

and earned her PhD at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

in 1981 where her studies focussed on the

philosophy of logic Philosophy of logic is the area of philosophy that studies the scope and nature of logic. It investigates the philosophical problems raised by logic, such as the presuppositions often implicitly at work in theories of logic and in their applicatio ...

and

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

. She subsequently taught philosophy at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

; philosophy and interdisciplinary humanities at the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a Public university, public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also op ...

; philosophy at the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...

; philosophy, English, and creative writing at the

University of New Brunswick The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is a public university with two primary campuses in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick. It is the oldest English language, English-language university in Canada, and among the oldest public universiti ...

; and philosophy at the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

. Zwicky is

Professor Emerita ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

in the Department of Philosophy at the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay, British Columbia, Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. Established in 1903 as Victoria College, British Columbia, Victoria Col ...

, where she taught both philosophy and interdisciplinary humanities courses from 1996 until 2009. She has served as a faculty member at the

Banff Centre Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (formerly Banff Centre) is an arts and culture educational institution in Banff, Alberta, Banff, Alberta. It offers arts programs in the Performing arts, performing and fine arts, as well as leadership trai ...

Writing Studio, has conducted numerous writing workshops, and served as an editor for Brick Books from 1985 to 2018. From 2017 through 2019, she was the series editor of Oskana Poetry and Poetics, an imprint of the University of Regina Press.

Philosophy

Zwicky's philosophical work challenges the hegemonic status of logico-linguistic analysis in 20th and 21st century Anglo-American philosophy. She is a realist who aims to defeat analytic skepticism by exploring the relationship between philosophical and poetic thinking, and by developing the notions of ''resonance'' and ''lyric'' understanding in

ontology Ontology is the philosophical study of existence, being. It is traditionally understood as the subdiscipline of metaphysics focused on the most general features of reality. As one of the most fundamental concepts, being encompasses all of realit ...

and

epistemology Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowle ...

: "Lyric shares with the coherentists, pragmatists, and nihilists the view that foundationalism is intellectually bankrupt: that what analytic system cannot sustain is anything like the claim of naive realism. However, lyric shares with naive realism the view that skepticism is false. What it does not share is the view that it is demonstrably, within system, false." (''Lyric Philosophy'' L264) Her books, ''Lyric Philosophy'' and ''Wisdom & Metaphor'', discuss but also enact this idea of resonance. They consist of many voices that range across diverse disciplines, so that Zwicky's aphoristic remarks on the left-hand pages are read with and against excerpts from the

history of philosophy The history of philosophy is the systematic study of the development of philosophical thought. It focuses on philosophy as rational inquiry based on argumentation, but some theorists also include myth, religious traditions, and proverbial lor ...

, musical scores, paintings, photographs, and poems on the right-hand pages. While Zwicky orders her remarks carefully and has a linear philosophical argument to make, each page is also designed to evoke remarks or images from other pages, prompting non-linear connections and directly demonstrating what she refers to as lyric structure, characterized by resonance. Zwicky believes that

Heraclitus Heraclitus (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic philosopher from the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian Empire. He exerts a wide influence on Western philosophy, ...

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

, and

Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Witt ...

have purposefully constructed philosophical texts in this way before her. She cites

Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies seen as originating from conflicts in t ...

's distinction between primary and secondary processes, as well as

Max Wertheimer Max Wertheimer (; April 15, 1880 – October 12, 1943) was a psychologist who was one of the three founders of Gestalt psychology, along with Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler. He is known for his book ''Productive Thinking'' and for conceiving the ...

's work in

gestalt psychology Gestalt psychology, gestaltism, or configurationism is a school of psychology and a theory of perception that emphasises the processing of entire patterns and configurations, and not merely individual components. It emerged in the early twent ...

, as support for the concepts she promotes. She references pieces of music, works of art, and natural eco-systems as objects that also exhibit lyric structure. Zwicky presents logical analysis and lyric thinking as complementary and includes both in a broader, more total conception of reason. She believes that the Anglo-American notion of what constitutes good philosophy is excessively narrow, and criticizes Continental and poststructural views for their anti-realist vision of the world as nothing more than a projection of human thought and desire. Zwicky promotes balance, arguing that neglect of either logical or lyric thinking leads to our ontological, epistemological, ethical and environmental peril. James O. Young, Professor of Philosophy at the

has said: "There's a reasonable chance that people will be reading her work a century from now. This is something that one says about only a very small number of philosophers."

Poetry

Zwicky's poetry is influenced by music in the classical European, blues, and jazz traditions. It also deals with the natural world, and has often been cited for its intense lyricism. ''Thirty-seven Small Songs and Thirteen Silences'' has appeared in Swedish (translated by Roy Isaakson; Palaver Press). Numerous individual poems have been translated into Czech, French, German, Serbian, Spanish and Italian. Among her many accolades, both Zwicky's ''Songs for Relinquishing the Earth'' and ''Robinson's Crossing'' were shortlisted for

Governor General's Awards The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the governor general of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by the ...

for Poetry. ''Songs for Relinquishing the Earth'' won the award in 1999. ''Robinson's Crossing'' won the

Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize The Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, established in 1986, is awarded annually to the best collection of poetry by a resident of British Columbia, Canada. One of the BC and Yukon Book Prizes, the award was originally known as the B.C. Prize for Poet ...

in 2004. Her 2011 book, ''Forge'', was shortlisted for the 2012 Canadian

Griffin Poetry Prize The Griffin Poetry Prize is a Canadian poetry award. It was founded in 2000 by businessman and philanthropist Scott Griffin. Before 2022, two separate awards went to one Canadian and one international poet who writes in the English language. I ...

Bibliography

Books

*''Wittgenstein Elegies'' – 1986, 2015 (2nd Ed.) *''The New Room'' – 1989 (shortlisted for the

Pat Lowther Award The Pat Lowther Memorial Award is an annual Canadian literary award presented by the League of Canadian Poets to the year's best book of poetry by a Canadian woman. The award was established in 1980 to honour poet Pat Lowther, who was murdered by ...

) *''Lyric Philosophy'' – 1992, 2011 (2nd ed.), 2014 (3rd ed.) *''Songs for Relinquishing the Earth'' – 1996, 1998 (winner of the 1999 Governor General's Award for Poetry and shortlisted for the

) *''Twenty-One Small Songs'' – 2000 *''Wisdom & Metaphor'' – 2003, 2008 (2nd ed.) (shortlisted for the 2004 Governor General's Award for Nonfiction) *''Robinson's Crossing'' – 2004 (winner of the

; shortlisted for the 2004 Governor General's Award for Poetry and the

) *''Thirty-seven Small Songs & Thirteen Silences'' – 2005 (shortlisted for the

and the

) *''Plato as Artist'' – 2009 *''Forge'' – 2011 (shortlisted for the 2012

and the

) *''Auden as Philosopher: How Poets Think'' - 2011 *''The Book of Frog'' – 2012 *''Vittoria Colonna - Selections from the Rime Spirituali'' with photographs by Robert Moody - 2014 *''Alkibiades' Love: Essays in Philosophy'' – 2015 *''Chamber Music: The Poetry of Jan Zwicky'', ed. Darren Bifford and Warren Heiti - 2015 *''The Long Walk'' – 2016 (Oskana Poetry & Poetics Series
University of Regina Press
*''Learning to Die: Wisdom in the Age of Climate Crisis'' - 2018 (co-authored with Robert Bringhurst)
University of Regina Press
*''The Experience of Meaning'' - 2019 *''Fifty-six Ontological Studies'' with photographs by Robert Moody – 2020 *''Sixty-Seven Ontological Studies'' with photographs by Robert Moody – 2022 *''Once Upon a Time in the West'' – 2023

Essays

*"Wittgenstein and the Logic of Inference", ''Dialogue'', Vol. XXI, No. 4, December 1982 *"Bringhurst's Presocratics: Lyric and Ecology" in ''Poetry and Knowing: Speculative Essays and Interviews'' (edited by

Tim Lilburn Tim Lilburn (born 27 June 1950) is a Canadian poet and essayist. Lilburn was born in Regina, Saskatchewan. He obtained a B.A. from the University of Regina, a Master's Degree in Philosophy from Gonzaga University, and his PhD from McMaster Univ ...

) – 1995 *"Plato's Phaedrus: Philosophy as Dialogue With the Dead", ''Apeiron'', Vol. 30, No. 1, March 1997 *"Being, Polyphony, Lyric: An Open Letter to

Robert Bringhurst Robert Bringhurst Appointments to the Order of Canada (2013). (born 1946) is a CanadianWong (1999). poet, typographer and author. He has translated substantial works from Haida and Navajo and from classical Greek and Arabic. He wrote ''The El ...

", ''Canadian Literature'', No. 156, Spring 1998 *"The Geology of Norway", ''

Harvard Review of Philosophy ''The Harvard Review of Philosophy'' is an annual peer-reviewed academic journal of philosophy edited by a student collective at Harvard University.Scanlon, Thomas (2002) "Foreword" ''In'' Upham, S. Phineas, ''Philosophers in Conversation: Intervi ...

'', Vol. 7, Spring 1999 *"Dream Logic and the Politics of Interpretation" & "Once Upon a Time in the West: Heidegger and the Poets" in ''Thinking and Singing: Poetry & The Practice of Philosophy'' (edited by

) – 2002 *"Wilderness and Agriculture" in ''The Eye in the Thicket: Essays at a Natural History'' (edited by Sean Virgo) – 2002 *"Integrity and Ornament" in ''Crime and Ornament'', edited by Bernie Miller and Melony Ward 2002 *"Oracularity", ''Metaphilosophy'', Vol. 34, No. 4, July 2003 *"The Ethics of the Negative Review", ''Malahat Review'', No. 144, Fall 2003 *Introduction to ''Hard Choices: Climate Change in Canada'', edited by Harold Coward and A.J. Weaver 2004 *"Mathematical Analogy and Metaphorical Insight", ''The Mathematical Intelligencer'', Vol. 28, No. 2, 2006 *'"Lyric, Narrative, Memory" in ''A Ragged Pen: Essays on Poetry & Memory'' – 2006 *"Lyric Realism: Nature Poetry, Silence and Ontology", ''Malahat Review'', No. 165, Winter 2008 *"What Is Ineffable?", ''International Studies in the Philosophy of Science'', Vol. 26, No. 2, June 2012, pp 197–217 *"Alcibiades' Love" in ''Philosophy as a Way of Life: Ancients and Moderns'' (edited by Michael Chase, Stephen R. L. Clark, and Michael McGhee) – 2013 *"A Note on Jane Jacobs's ''Systems of Survival'', or Why We Will Not Be Able to Prevent Global Ecological Collapse" in ''Brick: A Literary Journal'', Vol. 105, Summer 2020, pp 48–53 *"Frost and Snow", ''Eidos: A Journal for Philosophy of Culture'', Vol. 5, 2021, pp 146–154 and ''Brick: A Literary Journal'', Vol. 107, Summer 2021, pp 45–53

Interviews

*"There is No Place That Does Not See You" – 2002 Interviewed by Anne Simpson in ''Where the Words Come From: Canadian Poets in Conversation'' (edited by Tim Bowling) *"The Details: An Interview with Jan Zwicky" – 2008 Interviewed by Jay Ruzesky in the ''Malahat Review'', No. 165, Winter 2008 *"Perfect Fluency" – 2011 Interviewed by Scott Pinkmountain in the ''Owen Wister Review'' *"The Griffin Poetry Prize Questionnaire: Jan Zwicky" – 4 June 2012, The National Post, Mark Medley

Conversations

*"Contemplation and Resistance: A conversation ith Tim Lilburn excerpt reprinted in ''Lyric Ecology'' (edited by Mark Dickinson and Clare Goulet, 2010) *"Embodiment and Voice: A Conversation", with Darren Bifford and Warren Heiti, Brick 94 (Winter 2015), 15–23.

Commentary

*''Lyric Ecology: An Appreciation of the Work of Jan Zwicky'', ed. Mark Dickinson and Clare Goulet – 2010

References

External links

Jan Zwicky reads from ''Robinson's Crossing'' and ''Songs for Relinquishing the Earth''Jan Zwicky reads "Night Music"

The Ring. University of Victoria's community newspaper. 1999
Introduction to ''Hard Choices: Climate Change in Canada''"Wilderness and Agriculture": An essay by Jan Zwicky
at

Library and Archives Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; ) is the federal institution tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is the 16th largest library in the world. T ...

Gaspereau Press HomepageThe Griffin Poetry Prize Questionnaire''Lyric Philosophy''
an
''Wisdom & Metaphor''
on Brush Education's website
Jan Zwicky at Brick Books
*
Jan Zwicky fonds (R11836)
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zwicky, Jan 1955 births 20th-century Canadian poets 21st-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian philosophers 21st-century Canadian philosophers Canadian women poets Academic staff of European Graduate School Governor General's Award–winning poets Living people Philosophers of logic Canadian philosophers of science University of Calgary alumni University of Toronto alumni Academic staff of the University of Waterloo Academic staff of the University of Western Ontario Academic staff of the University of Victoria Poets from British Columbia Poets from Calgary Canadian women philosophers 20th-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian women writers Canadian women non-fiction writers Poets from Ontario