Professor Juliusz Domański, a renowned classical scholar and neo‑Latinist, has published Wykłady o humanizmie („Lectures on humanism”, 2020). He starts from Plato and makes Erasmus of Rotterdam the terminal point of his intellectual voyage. This itinerary comprises the story of the conflict between philosophy and liberal arts concerning the question how poetry is to be taught. Platonic objections against poets met with eager welcome in Christianity. Yet even in the Middle Ages scholars remained devoted to the study of the ancient literature, although the dominant model of education was at that time more and more resolutely ‘scientific’. The goal of education was defined as developing astute abilities in specific ‘arts’ ( artes) rather than studying classical ‘authors’ ( auctores). In order to understand different views on the relation between philosophy and poetry I recall Bogusław Wolniewicz’s remark that human activities can be developed in four different fields: naturalistic rationalism, metaphysical rationalism, naturalistic irrationalism and metaphysical irrationalism.