Jonathan Swift and Philosophy

H-Ideas Jonathan Swift and philosophy

Discussion published by Owen Anderson on Sunday, November 9, 2014

CFA “Jonathan Swift and philosophy”

I’m soliciting abstracts for a book on „Jonathan Swift and philosophy”

(Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield).

Although Jonathan Swift is one of the most well-known authors of the English language, this prolific and original writer is still little understood, and hence remains underestimated. Most people see in his Gulliver’s Travels nothing more but a delightful children’s book. His other writings are either unheard of or being dismissed as overly ridiculous or stemming from a misanthropy bordering on the pathological, as, for instance, his scatological poems. This, however, doesn’t do justice to the abilities of the author and the range of his work.

The aim of the volume is to place key texts of Swift in their various philosophical and cultural contexts and to thereby disclose their rich philosophical content. This book aims mainly at academics and grad students and is meant to be a serious academic contribution.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

- Platonic government in Brobdingnag

- Lilliput, Blefuscu, and the idea of tolerance

- Yahoos and animal ethics: What do we owe non-human beings?

Citation: Owen Anderson. Jonathan Swift and philosophy. H-Ideas. 11-09-2014. https://networks.h-net.org/node/6873/discussions/51627/jonathan-swift-and-philosophy Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-Ideas

- Gulliver and the houyhnhnms, or: can speciecism be justified?

- Utilitarianism in the country of the houyhnhnms

- A tale of a tub, or: finding the golden means

- “An argument against abolishing Christianity”, or what do we need religion for?

- Laputa and the ethics of science

- Balnibari and the threats of technology

- The academy of Lagado and the foundations of science

- The Struldbruggs and bioethics, or: who wants to live forever?

- Lilliputian philosophy of law: punish or reward?

- “The battle of the books” and the idea of progress

- “In a lady’s dressing room” – Swift and gender

- Socratic irony in Swift

- Gulliver and Schopenhauer: the philosophy of pessimism

- Philosophy of education in Lilliput