The Waning of the Renaissance 1640-1740 [electronic resource] : Studies in the Thought and Poetry of Henry More, John Norris and Isaac Watts / by John Hoyles
It is not always easy to maintain a proper balance between the delineation of cultural development within a given literary field and the claims of practical criticism. And yet if the history of ideas is to be more than a pastime for the student of literature, it must be rooted in the precise art of discrimination. The following chapters attempt to describe and evaluate a particular cultural development by relating the background of ideas to the literary achievement of three writers. It will be sufficient here to outยญ line the nature of the problem, and the method and approach employed. The concept of cultural development implies a recognition of the conยญ nections between ideology and aesthetics. There are at least two ways of exploring such connections. The one, pioneered by Basil Willey, seeks to situate the critical moments of our cultural development in the backยญ ground of ideas, without which the contribution of a particular author cannot be justly evaluated. The danger of such an approach is that the task of discrimination comes to depend over-heavily on extra-literary criteria
CONTENT
One The Source: Henry More -- 1. Introduction: The Fourth Ground of Certainty -- 2. Philosophy: Descartes and Plato -- 3. Religion: Latitude and Pietism -- 4. Aesthetics: From Metaphysical to Romantic -- 5. Moreโs Work as Literature -- Two The Verge: John Norris -- 6. Introduction: A Transitional Figure -- 7. Norris and the Enlightenment -- 8. Philosophy: โPlatonic Gibberishโ -- 9. Religion: The Grounds of Assent -- 10. Poetry: The Last of the Metaphysicals -- Three The Result: Isaac Watts -- 11. Introduction: Classicism and the Enlightenment -- 12. The English Enlightenment -- 13. โFree Philosophyโ -- 14. Sunk Religion -- 15. Aesthetics -- 16. The Sublime -- 17. The Metaphysical Tradition -- 18. Classicism: The Art of Sinking -- Conclusion
