DOCSLIB.ORG

The Speculative Mode: Intersections of Literature and the New Science in Restoration England

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Speculative Mode: Intersections of Literature and the New Science in Restoration England MATEY, CRYSTAL LEE, Ph.D. The Speculative Mode: Intersections of Literature and the New Science in Restoration England. (2018) Directed by Dr. Jennifer Keith. 277 pp. Within the field of Restoration and eighteenth-century studies, critics have investigated the relationship between literature and science for almost a century. Even among specialists, however, there has been insufficient enquiry into epistemological tensions between categories for what now might be called “pre-science” and what was then known as “natural philosophy.” Even less attention has been paid to the relation between natural philosophy and the category of speculation, in which speculation is understood scientifically and literarily. I explore how what I define as speculative writing about natural philosophy assisted in publicizing and spreading new epistemologies during the Restoration and early eighteenth century. In analyzing speculative writing, I investigate the cultural reception of natural philosophy, tracing responses to such changes. I argue that the speculative mode emphasizes a more integrated vision of knowledge formation at that time, a vision that is now divided by the categories of art and science. Emphasizing the contemporary reactions to these various models of knowledge, my methods require a deeply historical approach. To focus this approach, I consider writings in the Restoration that respond to the formation and practices of the early Royal Society: its institutional presence and public mission made it an especially attractive target of speculative writing that would challenge the Society’s official promotion of the experimental method and rejection of the speculative method. I take as evidence both literary and nonliterary documents, representative of a range of genres: these include dictionaries printed at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century, Thomas Sprat’s The History of the Royal Society and Abraham Cowley’s opening ode, Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis and Margaret Cavendish’s Observations upon Experimental Philosophy and Blazing World, as well as Thomas Shadwell’s The Virtuoso and Aphra Behn’s The Emperor of the Moon. My argument considers the mixed and conflicting strands that informed the broader category of natural philosophy and recognizes the many ways in which the texts concerned with natural philosophy are by no means easily separated into so-called scientific or literary ones. I conclude the study by looking forward, linking the beginnings of the speculative mode in the Restoration period to a popular eighteenth-century text – Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. I end with a call to understand the cultural moment of the Restoration better by joining together works of science and art as both valid and necessary avenues toward knowledge and literary history. THE SPECULATIVE MODE: INTERSECTIONS OF LITERATURE AND THE NEW SCIENCE IN RESTORATION ENGLAND by Crystal Lee Matey A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Greensboro 2018 Approved by _________________________________ Committee Chair © 2018 Crystal Lee Matey To my family: Your love, encouragement, and patience made completion of this project possible. In memory of my Aunt “Lo-Lo,” who taught me that words have power and my grandfather, who might have been an English major in another time and place. ii APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation written by Crystal Lee Matey has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Committee Chair __________________________________________ Committee Members __________________________________________ __________________________________________ ___________________________ Date of Acceptance by Committee _________________________ Date of Final Oral Examination iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to offer my immense gratitude to my committee members – Dr. Jennifer Keith, Dr. Michelle Dowd, and Dr. Jennifer Feather. Their support and guidance during this process often fueled me when I needed inspiration. Their feedback has been instrumental in my growth and in the development of this project. For that I am truly grateful. I am especially appreciative of Dr. Keith for her mentorship and unwavering support. She pushed me further than I thought myself capable of, but her reassurance also encouraged me during the times I needed it most. I would not be the scholar I am today without her. I appreciate the enthusiasm Dr. Dowd and Dr. Feather consistently showed toward my project. Their thoughtful and honest critiques challenged me and strengthened my writing. Much appreciation goes to Dr. Karen Gevirtz for providing me with an early suggestion that turned into a rabbit-hole of research and, ultimately, my second chapter. Finally, I give special thanks to my fellow scholars and friends, Kristine Lee and Dusty Ross, who both read portions of this project and supplied me with invaluable feedback. More importantly, they sustained me through this process, offering me the conversation and laughter I needed to get me through. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................ vii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 1 II. “INTERPRETING ALL SUCH HARD WORDS”: DICTIONARY DEFINITIONS AS INSTRUCTION AND POPULARIZATION OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY FOR GENERAL READERS .................... 26 Defining Natural Philosophy .................................................................. 33 Empiricism and Experimental Philosophy .............................................. 48 Speculative Philosophy .......................................................................... 56 Hypothesis, Speculation, and the Imagination......................................... 61 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 73 III. “MEN OF HOT, EARNEST, AND HASTY MINDS” VERSUS “THE SOLID SUBSTANCE OF SCIENCE ITSELF”: THE ROYAL SOCIETY’S PUBLIC ATTEMPT TO EXALT EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY ............................................................. 78 Forming the Society ............................................................................... 82 Experimental Philosophy and the Royal Society ..................................... 87 Sprat’s History ....................................................................................... 93 Cowley’s Ode....................................................................................... 111 Conclusion ........................................................................................... 122 IV. “NATURAL PHILOSOPHY IS THE HARDEST OF ALL HUMAN LEARNING”: THE SPECULATIVE MODE AS AN EXAMPLE OF BALANCED AND PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN FRANCIS BACON’S NEW ATLANTIS AND MARGARET CAVENDISH’S BLAZING WORLD ........................ 130 Francis Bacon and New Atlantis ........................................................... 135 Cavendish and Her Observations .......................................................... 146 Blazing World ..................................................................................... 163 Conclusion ........................................................................................... 173 v V. DISORDERED INDIVIDUALS AND DISORDERED HOUSEHOLDS: SPECULATIONS ON THE EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHER CHARACTER-TYPE...................... 177 The Experimental Philosopher: Man versus Speculations ..................... 182 Samuel Butler’s Speculations on the Experimental Philosopher ............ 188 Speculation on the Restoration Stage .................................................... 195 The Virtuoso ......................................................................................... 199 The Emperor of the Moon ..................................................................... 207 The Afterlives of Gimcrack and Baliardo ............................................. 220 VI. CONCLUSION: “TWO WORLDS AT THE END OF THEIR POLES”: THE NEED FOR “SCIENCE” AND ART ................................ 232 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................... 245 vi LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1. Definitions of Physics and Natural Philosophy ............................................................. 42 Table 2. Definitions of Speculation ........................................................................................... 63 Table 3. Definitions Related to the Imagination ............................................................ 67 vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Everything must have a beginning, […] and that beginning must be linked to something that went before.1 Mary Shelley Within the field of Restoration and eighteenth-century studies, critics have investigated the relationship between literature and science for almost a century.2 Much of this work has included efforts to define “science” in that era, acknowledging that the word “science” has a different denotation in the Restoration and eighteenth century and that what precedes the modern term “science” is better labeled as “natural philosophy.” Even among specialists, however, there has been insufficient enquiry into tensions between categories for what now might be called “pre-science” and what was then known as “natural
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Early Modern Philosophy of Technology: Bacon and Descartes
    Early Modern Philosophy of Technology: Bacon and Descartes By Robert Arnăutu Submitted to Central European University Department of Philosophy In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy Supervisor: Professor Hanoch Ben-Yami CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2013 Copyright notice I hereby declare that this dissertation contains no materials accepted for any other degrees in any other institutions of higher education. Also, I declare that this dissertation contains no material previously written and/or published by any other person, except where appropriate acknowledgement has been made in the form of bibliographic reference. Robert Arnăutu June 2013 CEU eTD Collection i Abstract The contemporary understanding of technology is indebted to Bacon and Descartes, who challenged the pre-modern conceptions regarding useful material production. Although the production of artefacts has been a constant activity of humans since the dawn of history, the Ancient world tended to disvalue it, considering it a lower endeavour that aims to satisfy ignoble material needs. Technology, according to Ancient Greek thinkers, cannot surpass nature but can only bring small improvements to it; moreover, there is a difference in kind between natural things and technological artefacts; the activity of inventing and producing useful objects is unsuited for the nobility and for free men; there is an irreducible gap between proper knowledge and the production of artefacts. This approach toward technology is completely
    [Show full text]
  • Preconceived Theories and the Baconian Method
    William T. Lynch. Solomon's Child: Method in the Early Royal Society of London. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. xv + 292 pp. $60.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8047-3291-8. Reviewed by John Henry Published on H-Albion (February, 2003) Preconceived Theories and the Baconian fellows of the Royal Society, and yet the fellows all Method professed to be following the Baconian method. Although written with some fair and real in‐ Among the usual way of dealing with such genuity, this is a deeply fawed book. It suffers seeming contradictions among the fellows is to ac‐ from the fact that the author, somewhat obvious‐ knowledge the contingencies of history, the social ly, uses a number of cases from late seventeenth- usefulness not just of knowledge but also of century English science to support a preconceived knowledge claims, and the concomitant need to theory about the methodology of Francis Bacon. dress things up in carefully chosen rhetoric. Re‐ Given the fact that one of the main strengths of cent scholarship, therefore, has shown how a par‐ the Baconian method lay in its attempt to avoid ticular version of Baconian scientific method was the distortion which inevitably follows from seek‐ used for promotional and propaganda purposes ing evidence to support preconceived theories, by the leading spokesmen for the Royal Society in this is somewhat ironic. their published works, while in their actual prac‐ In large measure the difficulties with the tice, these same fellows did things in a variety of book arise out of the author's decision to base his different ways.
    [Show full text]
  • The New Method-2020.Pdf
    The New Scientific Method Rob Iliffe Aristotelian Method • Method, or the principles of argument and demonstration, played a highly important role in Aristotelian system • Medieval scholars understood the group of demonstrative techniques in different fields the ‘Organon’ (Latin ‘Organum’) or ‘tool’. • Aristotelian arguments were not primarily directed against sceptical positions, according to which one might doubt the reliability of individual sensory or cognitive faculties. • This is because ordinary human beings were assumed to experience the world as it really was, and were not deceived by their senses. The syllogistic method • Aristotle’s account of correct inference in science involved more sophisticated versions of the syllogistic method: • All As are Bs (Major premise, e.g. ‘All men are mortal’) • All Bs are Cs (Minor premise, e.g. ‘Socrates is a man’) • Therefore all As are Cs (Conclusion: e.g. ‘Socrates is mortal’). • Science proceeds by organizing data so that the Minor premise is explained by the better known, necessarily true and more fundamental Major premise. • Scientific demonstrations were supposed to go beyond mere syllogisms, to reveal the causal structures of the world. Art and Nature • The Aristotelian system placed limits on the use of artificial devices or techniques in natural philosophy – including mathematics. • Moreover, lenses were either distorting devices, or when they worked well – such as in magnifying glasses – • they made visible objects bigger to sight, rather than revealing things that were too small to be seen with the naked eye. • God would supposedly not have made creatures too small to be seen. • Philosophers assumed that instruments were ludic (playful devices) • And that invasive experimental techniques could not provide information about ‘natural’ motions, animate or inanimate.
    [Show full text]
  • Constructing Natural Historical Facts BACONIAN NATURAL HISTORY in NEWTON’S FIRST PAPER on LIGHT and COLORS
    OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – FIRSTPROOFS, Mon Feb 10 2014, NEWGEN 2 Constructing Natural Historical Facts BACONIAN NATURAL HISTORY IN NEWTON’S FIRST PAPER ON LIGHT AND COLORS Dana Jalobeanu* The peculiar structure of Newton’s first published paper on light and colors has been the subject of an astonishing diversity of readings: to date, scholars still do not agree as to what Newton wanted to prove in this paper or how he proved it.1 The structure of the paper is far from transparent. It consists of two very different parts: a historical account of what Newton called his “crucial experiment,” and a “doctrine of colors” consisting of thirteen propositions and an illustrative experiment. Equally debated has been the “style” of Newton’s demonstration.2 Newton begins the first part with an extensive his- torical account of how he became interested in the “celebrated phenomena of colors” and later reached one of its major results: that the shape of the spectrum refracted * Research for this paper has been supported by the grant PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0719, “From Natural History to Science,” awarded by the CNCS. 1 The paper has been read, in turns, as a formal blunder of a young upstart who dared to make a clear break with the mitigated skepticism and anti-dogmatism of the Royal Society, and as a brilliant exercise of rhetoric aiming to rewrite in the “scientific style of the day” the results of six long years of optical research. The reason for the exercise of rhetoric has also been the subject of fierce debates.
    [Show full text]
  • Causation, Science and Taxation
    1_BOGENSCHNEIDER_RTP_2.DOCX (DO NOT DELETE) 3/28/18 11:45 AM ARTICLES CAUSATION, SCIENCE AND TAXATION BRET N. BOGENSCHNEIDER* I. INTRODUCTION............................................................................ 2 II. WHAT IS “SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY” WITH RESPECT TO TAXATION? ................................................................................. 9 III. CAUSATION AND TAX POLICY ................................................... 14 A. Laffer Curve......................................................................... 15 B. “Small Open Economy” Model of Tax Incidence .................. 16 C. “Trickle-Down” Economics/“Deadweight Loss” of Income Taxation But Not Wage Taxation ............................ 17 IV. EINSTEIN’S QUERY: WHERE DO HYPOTHESES COME FROM? ...... 20 V. CLINICAL OBSERVATION IN TAXATION...................................... 22 A. The Hypothesis that Tax Cuts Cause Economic Growth ........ 23 B. The Relative Value of Tax Deductions .................................. 25 C. Estimating the Other Side of a Zero-Sum Equation ............... 27 D. Historical Evidence (Testing the Tax Cuts Hypothesis) ........ 28 VI. CONCLUSION ............................................................................. 30 1 1_BOGENSCHNEIDER_RTP_2.DOCX (DO NOT DELETE) 3/28/18 11:45 AM 2 Elon Law Review [VOL. 10 The legal topic of causation typically arises in respect of tort law and criminal law and not in other areas of law such as tax law. This may be because the theory of taxation is a type of applied moral philosophy where the
    [Show full text]
  • A Vela E O Caminho (Da Construção Coletiva Do Saber) the Candle and the Way (Construction's Collective to Know)
    A VELA E O CAMINHO (DA CONSTRUÇÃO COLETIVA DO SABER) THE CANDLE AND THE WAY (CONSTRUCTION'S COLLECTIVE TO KNOW) Luiz Carlos Mariano da Rosa1 [email protected] Resumo O artigo em questão se detém no método baconiano, que emerge através do Novum Organum (ou Verdadeiras Indicações acerca da Interpretação da Natureza) e acena com a pretensão de possibilitar o verdadeiro progresso da ciência, que demanda, em suma, a erradicação das predisposições para o erro, dos preconceitos e das noções falsas que impedem o acesso à verdade, dos “ídolos”, enfim, segundo a leitura de Bacon, que propõe o controle científico sobre a natureza como fator determinante da harmonia e do bem-estar dos homens, conforme o ideal exposto no trabalho intitulado Nova Atlântida, que converge para caracterizar o saber como uma construção coletiva, desenhando um horizonte que se impõe ao processo formativo-educacional, à medida que estabelece uma relação envolvendo conhecimento e poder que guarda raízes nas fronteiras da experiência, em cuja perspectiva a investigação em referência dialoga com a metodologia freinetiana, que sublinha a articulação entre teoria e prática e assinala o papel que cumpre o trabalho em uma aprendizagem que traz como fundamento a ação. Palavras-chave: Bacon, indução, conhecimento, experiência, ídolos, Freinet, educação, trabalho. Abstract The article in question stands in the baconian method, which emerges through the Novum Organum (or True Directions concerning the Interpretation of Nature) and waves with the intention of enabling the
    [Show full text]
  • Revisiting Bacon's Critique on Aristotle
    ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY REVISITING BACON’S CRITIQUE ON ARISTOTLE BY: TESFAYE G/YOHANNES Addis Ababa, Ethiopia May 30, 2019 i REVISITING BACON’S CRITIQUE ON ARISTOTLE BY Tesfaye G/Yohannes Kidane ADVISER: DAGNACHEW ASSEFA (PH.D) A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY, ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY (GRADUATE PROGRAM) IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN PHILOSOPHY Addis Ababa, Ethiopia May 30, 2O19 ii REVISITING BACON’S CRITIQUE ON ARISTOTLE BY: Tesfaye G/Yohannes Approved by Board of Examiners Chairperson Signature Date __________ ___________ _________ Advisor Signature Date __________ ___________ _________ Examiner Signature Date __________ ___________ _________ Examiner Signature Date ________________ ______________ ____________ iii Declaration I, Tesfaye G/Yohannes, declare that this thesis is my original work and has not been presented for a degree in any other university and that all sources of materials used for the thesis have been fully acknowledged. Declared by Tesfaye G/Yohannes. Signature __________Date_____________ i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my adviser Dr. Dagnachew Assefa as well as Dr. Setargew Kenaw for their constructive and insightful comments of this thesis. If I have shown some progresses in my academic journey, both of you to take the credit. It is also my pleasure to thank all my teachers who have taught me in Addis Ababa University in the department of Philosophy both at undergraduate and graduate levels. Also my thanks goes to the Ministry of Education and to UN for their financial on behalf of Debre-Markos University.
    [Show full text]
  • The New Organon Francis Bacon Frontmatter More Information
    Cambridge University Press 0521564832 - The New Organon Francis Bacon Frontmatter More information CAMBRIDGE TEXTS IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY FRANCIS BACON The New Organon © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521564832 - The New Organon Francis Bacon Frontmatter More information CAMBRIDGE TEXTS IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY Series editors KARL AMERIKS Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame DESMOND M. CLARKE Professor of Philosophy at University College Cork The main objective of Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy is to expand the range, variety and quality of texts in the history of philosophy which are available in English. The series includes texts by familiar names (such as Descartes and Kant) and also by less well-known authors. Wherever possible, texts are published in complete and unabridged form, and translations are specially commissioned for the series. Each volume contains a critical introduction together with a guide to further reading and any necessary glossaries and textual apparatus. The volumes are designed for student use at undergraduate and postgraduate level and will be of interest not only to students of philosophy, but also to a wider audience of readers in the history of science, the history of theology and the history of ideas. For a list of titles published in the series, please see end of book. © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521564832 - The New Organon Francis Bacon Frontmatter More information FRANCIS
    [Show full text]
  • Scottish Enlightenment Rhetoric and the New Aesthetic of Language
    University of Rhode Island DigitalCommons@URI Open Access Dissertations 2016 “A Peculiar Power of Perception”: Scottish Enlightenment Rhetoric and the New Aesthetic of Language Rosaleen Greene-Smith Keefe University of Rhode Island, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss Recommended Citation Greene-Smith Keefe, Rosaleen, "“A Peculiar Power of Perception”: Scottish Enlightenment Rhetoric and the New Aesthetic of Language" (2016). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 464. https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/464 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@URI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@URI. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “A PECULIAR POWER OF PERCEPTION”: SCOTTISH ENLIGHTENMENT RHETORIC AND THE NEW AESTHETIC OF LANGUAGE BY ROSALEEN GREENE-SMITH KEEFE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH LITERATURE UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 2016 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DISSERTATION OF ROSALEEN GREENE-SMITH KEEFE APPROVED: Dissertation Committee: J. Jennifer Jones Stephen J. Barber Cheryl Foster Nasser H. Zawia DEAN OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 2016 ABSTRACT This dissertation is an inquiry into the ways rhetoric, as the study of the art of language use, and literature, as the art of written language, were coherently theorized in Enlightenment Scotland to articulate the complex nature of language and its inherent relationship to the human mind and its faculties. The chapters contained in this manuscript dissertation are previously published studies in eighteenth-century Scottish rhetorical theory, examining the multiple and sometimes contradictory legacies of this important body of work on language pedagogy, philosophy of mind and language, and political theory.
    [Show full text]
  • Metaphors in the Construction of Theory: Ramus, Peirce and the American Mind Laurel Warren Trufant University of New Hampshire, Durham
    University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Winter 1990 Metaphors in the construction of theory: Ramus, Peirce and the American mind Laurel Warren Trufant University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation Trufant, Laurel Warren, "Metaphors in the construction of theory: Ramus, Peirce and the American mind" (1990). Doctoral Dissertations. 1634. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/1634 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS The most advanced technology has been used to photograph and reproduce this manuscript from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps.
    [Show full text]
  • Iv History of Scientific Method
    IV THE PLACE OF FRANCIS BACON IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD RANCIS BACON has been popularly accounted as the F father of modern ‘science and its method. Unfor- tunately, that sort of title has been given to many people. In fact, it must be remarked that on the tree of knowledge, considered as a family tree, many a “bar sinister” is hung; for it is rare in science that the son knows his own father. Even where parentage may be conceivable, an oblique descent is so much more the rule than the exception, that it is quite possible that we can find a more appropriate name for the relation which Bacon bore to the several scientific disciplines. Let us spend a few moments in investigating this problem of paternity. The question is not one of the importance of Bacon, but rather more definite. It may be stated as fol- lows: If there had been no Bacon, would the future of science have been essentially different, or would its develop- ment have been materially slower? I think we may give the negative answer to both these questions. Let us consider, therefore, the states of various modern sciences, and see if they may be traced back more or less directly to a source. Probably we can all agree that up to the middle of the last century, at least, the most important body of natural science was that of physics and astronomy, with its mathe- matical systematization. Along this branch the lines of descent seem straighter than elsewhere. Two modern 73 74 Lectures on Francis Bacon names are characteristic of it more than any others.
    [Show full text]
  • Farrell Final Revised Dissertation
    REMOVING THE BINARIES BETWEEN HUMANITY AND NATURE: THE FEMALE PERCEPTION THROUGH SCIENCE FICTION UTOPIAS by SARAH FARRELL Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Arlington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON May 2015 Copyright © by Sarah Farrell 2015 All Rights Reserved ii Acknowledgements No number of words can adequately express how thankful I am for those who encouraged me through this entire process. However, I will do my best to adequately express the sincerity I feel towards those who uplifted me these past two years. First, I want to thank my parents and grandfather who have been a constant influence in my life. Never ones to sit and wait for things to happen for them, they always worked hard for everything that they have. Perseverance with a mixture of pure love is the recipe for success. Thank you for teaching me those important life lessons. Second, I want to thank “all” my friends and family who helped me through this process. I especially want to thank my dissertation comrades: Dana Brewer and Mylynka Cardona. Whether it was having to listen to my endless rants, or having to read my dissertation, you were a great source of therapy. Third, I want to thank my dissertation committee, especially my chair, Amy Tigner. You helped me navigate through such a difficult task, and I appreciate the amount of effort and advice you have given me on each stage of the dissertation. You have been a very influential instructor in my life.
    [Show full text]