Identify a sentence or two from the reading for this week that impressed you in some way and explain why.
Deadline: Saturday (9/12), midnight.
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George Stubbs, 1795
Welcome to the course blog for English 206/CWL 257: Enlightenment Literature and Culture. This is where you will find course documents, background information on the reading, and an opportunity to discuss the course material outside of class.
The Haymakers
George Stubbs, 1795
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- For Credit: Boswell on Hume
- For Credit: Johnson on Hume
- An Illustration?
- For Credit: The Spacious Firmament
- For Credit: Newton!
- No Class Monday; Extra Office Hours Tuesday
- For Credit: The Pleasures of the Poem (last chance...
- For Credit: Johnson's God?
- For Credit: Reason?
- For Credit: Patronage and Preferment
- For Credit: What Your Classmates Want to Know
- Paraphrasing "The Vanity of Human Wishes" (UPDATED!)
- For Credit: Lines 1 - 20 (Stating the Problem)
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- For Credit: Write Your Own Heroic Couplets! (updat...
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- First Assignment Grading Guidelines
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- For Credit: Did Piozzi Read Locke?
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- For Credit: Tahiti!
- Group Discussion 1: Enjoyment and Tahiti
- For Credit: Royal Society Grab Bag
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5 comments:
I found the sentence: "The propagation of beings is the greatest object of nature. It imperiously solicits both sexes as soon as they have been granted their share of strength and beauty" (p. 266, The Portable Enlightenment Reader) to be very impressive. This is because it so bluntly says that sex is natural. But then it also goes on to say that it is natural for BOTH men and women. He doesn't just say sex is only natural for one gender.
"Dost thou wish to know what is good and bad in all times and all places? Cling to the nature of things and actions: to thy relations with those like thee: to the influence of thy conduct on thy private convenience and the public good. Thou art mad if thou thinkest there be anything, high or low, in the universe which can supplement or be subtracted from the law of nature."
This passage from Diderot on the Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville really stuck out to me when grasping how Diderot sets up an intellectual dyad within the conversation between the two men. While Diderot may not ultimately agree with Orou's viewpoints or core beliefs (how could he? Orou did not literally speak these words), Orou's seemingly aggressive stance against Western religion hints towards a dissatisfaction Diderot reserves, especially to the Church. The last part especially slams the idea that Western religion does more than acknowledge the presence of God or as we discussed in class "revealed religion" in the sense that Orou implies that there is "adding/subtracting" to "natural religion" that creates what is the Western church. Whether Diderot agrees with the whole passage word for word or not may be subject to interpretation, but nonetheless a piece we can take away from these sentences is that indeed Western civilzation presents a convoluted view of religion that Diderot may be apprehensive to declare as fully necessary. The exploration into a more natural form of "spirituality" is an interesting approach (or a raw one), perhaps one that will ultimately serve as an impetus for those who insist that Westernized religion is the only form worth following.
"To enjoy means to know, to experience, to feel the advantages of possession" (Diderot 265). This sentence captured my attention because it reminded me of the character Dorian Gray who was obsessed with experiencing all that he could, good or bad. Perhaps Diderot also believed that enjoyment was found through human life experience no matter how miserable or ecstatic it could have been; being alive to touch and feel was probably enough for him to enjoy.
The passage from Diderot when Orou is trying to wrap his head around the almoners religion. Orou says, "I find these singular precepts opposed to nature and contrary to reason, made to multiply crimes and to plague at every moment this old maker, who has made everything, without help of hands, or head, or tools, who is everywhere and is not seen anywhere, who exists today and tomorrow and yet is not a day older, who commands and is not obeyed, who can prevent and yet does not do so. Contrary to nature because these precepts suppose that a free, thinking and sentient being can be the property of a being like himself" (270).
This passage is a very overt statement pointing out the contradictions of religion that even religious people often struggle with, the idea that individuals have free will but they must attempt to resist their natural urgencies in order to avoid sinning. To Orou, this is absurd, To him, the almoners religion is setting up a situation where an individual cannot prevent failure. Also, Diderot's portrayal of Orou (the individual who is completely ignorant to western religion) was interesting. Orou is struggling to understand how the almoners God figure can possess so much power. How someone can make everything with no hands or tools and how He can live forever. I found this passage interesting, because it challenged every other religious notion that we have read about thus far in the course.
The sentence that I found to be very impressive is Orou's thoughts on God. As it states, "Believe me, you have made the condition of man worse than that of animals. I do not know what your great maker may be; but I rejoice that he has never spoken to our forefathers, and I wish that he may never speak to our children; for he might tell them the same foolishness, and they commit the folly of believing it" (Diderot 271). What impresses me most is the outright condemning of God expressed by Orou. God, for the past centuries, has dominated the thoughts and actions of the majority of the population, and for Diderot to write a story of someone speaking out against such beliefs is extraordinarily dangerous. I believe that this text signifies the evolution of thought that is occurring with the onset of the “Enlightenment” because it breaks from the means of religious conformity and challenges the thoughts of many believers.
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