Thesis
Wonders divine of human imagination: science as art form and imperative in Blake
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2012
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/103713
Abstract
This thesis analyzes William Blake's discourse with the philosophy and methods of science. I investigate the significance of references to science in Blake's major poems, including The Book of Urizen, The Four Zoas, Milton a Poem, and Jerusalem the Emanation of the Giant Albion. Previous criticism of Blake and science has focused on his disagreement with science, especially the natural philosophy of the Enlightenment. My analysis complicates this interpretation by reappraising the complex role of science in Blake. Because Blake describes science as a limit to creative thinking and a creative enterprise in its own right, I defend a view of science as necessary, but misapplied in Blake's poetry. Only science provides the means to make sense of lived experience. But scientific conclusions should not delimit ways of thinking about the world. For Blake, scientists during the Enlightenment and within his own time faltered precisely by resisting ways of thinking that did not accommodate their own findings. To understand Blake's objection to science, my thesis asks why certain scientists might epitomize their errors, and describes the means by which science might be more suited to Blake's ideas.
Metrics
7 File views/ downloads
18 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Wonders divine of human imagination
- Creators
- Scott David Offutt
- Contributors
- Debbie Lee (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- English, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525153701842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis