ASSIGNMENT
ENLIGHTMENT
I MA ECL
“Reason is natural revelation”
-John
Lock
The term ‘Enlightenment’ is a term which refers to an intellectual
movement of the 1700s which was widespread whole over the European continent. It
marks the shift from predictive notion of knowledge to that of a deductive one.
The enlightenment thinkers did not advocate any common ideal or
philosophy. The idea of individualism and the importance of rational thinking
brought them together. The Scientific Revolution had begun by the fourteenth century; it was merely seen as a
creation of God. Otherwise, it was considered unorthodox. The question on
authority of religion and faith were punishable, church and other religious
institutions were enjoyed their power and occupy control over the people and
their lives.
It is visible; the enlightenment era had followed the neoclassicism. On other hand the Enlightenment period
overlaps with the neoclassical age. This
period takes it name from the restoration of the Stuart to the England throne
in 1600, at the end of the commonwealth lasting till 1700. The early puritan
regime reflected in the literature of the period. Two
central concepts of the neoclassical literary theory and practice were
imitation and nature and these two are intimately related. In Renaissance,
writers increasingly sophisticated individualism and exploration of
subjectivity can be seen. Opposed to this the notion of imitation of the
external world and of human nature was a reaffirmation of the ideals of
impersonality and objectivity. But at the same time, imitation of classical
models especially Homer and Virgil was integral to this notion. The relations
of neoclassicism with recent science and things which consequently emerged as
some of the core values of enlightenment are really paradoxical. There were
neoclassical thoughts which were rooted in conservative ideals also. The major
writers during this era were Alexander Pope, Aphra Behn, and Dryden etc.
The theaters was back to life after the cancellation of the ban placed
by the puritan in 1642. Sir George
Etherege, William Wycherely , William Congreve and John Dryden developed the
comedy of manners called Restoration comedy
. Dryden , Thomas Otway and the other playwright developed the
tragedy called Heroic drama.
Dryden was the most dominating and most representative literary figure
of that time, hence the age also referred as age of Dryden. Dryden occupied a
place in English critical history . Samuel Johnson called him the ‘Father of
English Criticism’ . He agreed Dryden on his Essay of Dramatic Poesy that
modern English Prose begins here. In addition to the essay he wrote numerous
prefaces, prologue which together set the stage for late poetic and critical
development.
The eighteenth century English literature has been called the Augustan
Age, the neoclassical Age and the Age of Reason. The original Augustan Age was
the brilliant literary period of Virgil , Horace, and Ovid under the Roman
Empire Augustus. The term was applied to the literary period in England from
1700 to 1745. Alexander pop is
associated with the age known as Augustine Age, portrays the fact that other
writers such as Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe were influenced much more. The
literature of this period which conformed to Pope’s aesthetic principle is distinguished
by the striving for harmony and precision.
European politics, philosophy, literature and science were reoriented
during the course of seventeenth and eighteenth centuries due to a phenomenon
termed Enlightenment. It was an era marked by humanitarian, intellectual and
social progress. Unlike the early period which gave importance to irrational
prejudices and superstitions, thought began to be based on the rationality and
freedom of an individual. More than a human faculty reason began to be seen as
a way of life or a way of looking at the world.
Much of the Enlightenment thoughts owe to the new scientific vision of
the universe inspired by the work of Isaac Newton. The historical perception of
nature as created and controlled by a benevolent providence was dismantled by
the scientific notion of a mechanical universe which could be comprehended
through scientific laws. Reason was given importance even before the period of
Enlightenment, but then people were taught to use reason within certain
constraints put forward by the religion or society. During Enlightenment the
difference was that reason began to be viewed as the primary faculty to acquire
knowledge through its limitless application. English thinker Francis Bacon, the
French rationalist philosopher Rene Descartes and the Dutch rationalist thinker
Benedict Spinoza had influenced the Enlightenment ideals.
Major figures in this period are; Francis
Bacon, famous English philosopher, propagated the method of introduction
through his works. His major works include The Advancement of Learning and The
Organonare. . He advocated that the
method of induction is a more authentic method than the method of deduction
which was followed during the medieval age. This is a more scientific method
because we apply reason to the observed facts than merely form random
conclusions.
David Hume is one of the major figures of the Enlightenment. This
Scottish philosopher developed some of
Locke’s empiricist notions toward more radical, skeptical, conclusions. His
major philosophical works include A Treatise of Human Nature (1740), An Enquiry
Concerning Human Understanding (1748), An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of
Morals (1751) and Political Discourses (1752) etc. His works are generally
considered as the manifesto of enlightenment.
Hume argued that we know only ideas, not the external world itself.
According to him, external objects can be known only by the “perceptions they
occasion,” and we can infer their existence only from “the coherence of our
perceptions,” whether they indeed are real or merely “illusions of the senses.”
Hume rejected the Aristotelian concept of “substance” as the underlying
substratum of reality. Hume's essay
"Of the Standards of Taste," was published in his volume entitled
Four Dissertations in 1757. The other three essays were on history of religion,
the passions, and tragedy. It is a celebrated literary performance, and it
bears suggestively on modern and contemporary debates about standards in
criticism, reader-response theory, interpretive communities, and canon
formation and it poses grave questions about the standards of aesthetic judgments
of taste.
Giambattista Vico is an Italian Philosopher. In His writings he
expressed a historical view of the progress of human thought, language, and
culture. This particular thought anticipates the evolutionary perspectives of
Hegel, Marx others. His major work was Scienza Nuova which was first published
in 1725. He got his education in rhetoric and medieval philosophy.
Vico was a predecessor of systemic and complexity thinking, as opposed
to Cartesian analysis. He is rightfully cast as a counter-Enlightenment
thinker. He advocated rhetoric and humanism. His conjecture can be more easily
understood by contrasting it with the Cartesian rationalism, especially the
emphasis laid by Descartes on the geometric method.
Alexander Pope, the author of “An Essay on Criticism”. It was an
attempt to identify and refine his own position as a poet and as a critic. His contribution to
neoclassical criticism is very important in the period. The essay is modeled on
the Horatian form and it followed a survey and consideration of the criticism
in general , an examination of the important causes for literary misjudgment ,
characteristics of an ideal critic ,and a short account of the history of
criticism .
Samuel Johnson, also known as Dr Johnson is a poet, essayist,
moralist, critic, biographer and a lexicographer. He is remembered for his” Dictionary
of the English Language”. Although it was not the first dictionary in English
language, it was the first comprehensive dictionary.
“Lives of the English Poets” is another famous work of Dr Johnson. It
consists of short biographies and critical assessment of 52 poets, most of who
lived during the 18th century. He has also penned poem, the famous poem being
The Vanity of Human Wishes. “The History
of Rasselas” is another important work of Johnson. It is basically an apologue
on happiness.
Immanuel Kant is one of the leading figures of modern philosophy. He lived
towards the end of the Enlightenment, he is a German. Like Voltaire and Hume,
he too believed that reason should replace the traditions and superstitions of
religion and monarchy. Although he lived during the revolution of France and
America, he was largely unaffected by the events.
Kant carefully amalgamated the empiricist philosophy that was prevalent
in Great Britain and rationalist philosophy of Europe. Although he was trained
in rationalist tradition, he was influenced by the empiricist philosophy of
Hume. Kant argued that reason is the source of morality, aesthetics arises out
of detached judgements, and that the world in itself is something unknowable to
human beings.
One of the most important personalities in this era was Mary Wollstonecraft. She was an English
writer, philosopher and advocate of women’s rights. She is often considered as
the first feminist writer. Her famous work “Vindication of the Rights of Men”
was a reply to Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France. Her best known
work is A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. This book is considered as the
foundational text of western feminism.
She proposes the idea of equality of men and women. She was of the view
that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and wants a social
order based on reason. She argues that
rights cannot be based on tradition, but on reason and rationality. Of course
she can be considered one of the most influencing figures in enlightenment.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Habib, M. A. R. A History of Literary
Criticism: From Plato to the Present. New Delhi: Blackwell, 2006. Print
2. Albert Edward. History of English
Literature. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1979. Print
3. Abrams, M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms.
Wadsworth: Cengage, 2012. Print
4. Schmidt, James, ed.. What Is Enlightenment?:
Eighteenth-century Answers and Twentieth-century Questions. Ed. James Schmidt.
1st ed. University of California Press, 1996. Web.
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