This thesis focuses on the educational thought of William Godwin (1756-1836) and how it is expressed through his essays and fiction. Attention here focuses on the Account of the Seminary (1783), The Enquirer (1797), and the preface to Bible Stories (1803). Godwin’s key argument is that the imagination must be developed through reading. In this, Godwin saw the potential for subsequent generations to live wiser and happier lives than their predecessors, with reading offering a place for young people to learn without being forced to conform to the models offered by previous generations under the authority Godwin saw as inherent to conventional pedagogy. This thesis argues that Godwin’s education writing represents the convergence of the author’s epistemology, his passion for literature, and his vision of the continuous improvement of humanity. Godwin’s ideas are rooted in a profoundly sceptical theory of knowledge, and this rejection of certainty contributes both to Godwin’s principled rejection of authority and his acknowledgement of its utility in education. The author’s search for an ethical solution to this conflict is seen in the contrast between his rejection of Rousseau’s Émile (1762) and his affection for Fénelon’s Telemachus (1699), culminating in his own novel Fleetwood (1805). Godwin’s writing for children, exemplified by his Fables Ancient and Modern (1805), shows the author attempting to create texts that teach children to think for themselves – books that reject the mantle of literary authority.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis focuses on the relationship between Thomas Hobbes and his one-time patron, Francis Bacon. It addresses the natural and civil histories and philosophies of the two thinkers. The study does not contain any extended treatment of Bacon and Hobbes' conception of rhetoric or theology, or their literary style. V The thesis comprises five chapters. Chapter 1 sets out the extant evidence for the personal relationship between the two thinkers. It also shows that Hobbes' knowledge of Bacon's works was extensive and that his interest in _ his texts was ongoing. Chapter 2 deals with Bacon and Hobbes' histories of learning. It argues that Hobbes consistently followed the contours of Bacon's history of knowledge. It also shows the way in which Hobbes assimilated details from the histories of other writers into this framework, and how he provided more naturalistic explanations of some of the central characters and motives in that history. The third chapter discusses Bacon and Hobbes' civil histories. This chapter explores the conception of history embodied in Hobbes' translation of Thucydides. It also addresses Hobbes' later church histories. In so doing it extends the analysis of the previous section in two ways. First, it traces Hobbes' conception of the history of philosophy back to Thucydides. Secondly, it shows how, especially in Hobbes' later church histmies, the factors that had led to the poverty of human science also posed dangers for the commonwealth. Chapter 4 deals with natural history and philosophy. Central to this chapter is the claim that Hobbes' assimilation of Euclid reflected a pre-existing commitment to a Baconian conception of the ends and justification of science. It also argues that Hobbes' two major discoveries of the 1630s and 1640s (as he saw them) were expressed in Baconian terms. Finally, the fifth chapter explores civil philosophy. I also explore Bacon and Hobbes' understanding of the passions and Hobbes' rejection of Bacon's doctrine of civil greatness. Throughout I have attempted to compare Bacon's mature position with Hobbes' philosophy at different stages of its development. The purpose of this thesis is not to claim that Hobbes' philosophy was essentially Baconian. Nor do I claim that Bacon, rather than Galileo, Harvey or Euclid, was Hobbes' pre-eminent interest. Rather, I argue that Bacon was one of a number of philosophers with whom Hobbes constructively and critically engaged. Consequently, I reject the thesis that Hobbes' thought was the antithesis of Bacon's, and the view that Hobbes soon forgot Bacon after reading Euclid and Galileo.

The thesis is concerned with the exploration of the interconnections between philosophy and history in David Hume’s work and seeks to provide a reassessment of his remarkable transition from metaphysical philosopher and polite essayist to philosophical and narrative historian. The first part of the thesis puts forth a detailed reappraisal of Hume’s intellectual preoccupations and literary pursuits in the crucial but neglected period 1748-1752, a period that witnessed Hume’s tour of several European courts in 1748, his intensive reading of the classics and his engagement with Montesquieu’s new system of socio-political analysis. These years saw a decisive shift in Hume’s thinking about human nature that resulted in an increasing emphasis on its historicity. It is argued that this helps to explain his growing insistence on the necessity of accounting for the varied manifestations of human nature in different historical periods by a reconstruction of the social, political and economical conditions of past societies as well as their customs, manners and belief systems. It is furthermore argued that Hume’s new holistic view of past civilisations found its expression in a number of diverse pieces which can be read as fragments of a cultural history of classical antiquity and contain an important agenda for a new kind of cultural history. The second part of the thesis considers the significance of this thinking for Hume’s plans for a large-scale work of modern British political history. The discussion is focussed on the History of Great Britain under the House of Stuart (1754-56) and pays particular attention to his intentions as a political historian. It is shown that the success of his work depended largely on his skill in raising his readers’ ‘interest’ and his adeptness in conveying his own ‘impartiality’ as a historian. It is argued that Hume’s achievement can best be understood through an in-depth analysis of his innovative appropriation of a narrative device that had already been used by many historians from Thucydides to Rapin-Thoyras, the set-piece political debate, which Hume employed as the main device for explaining the emergence of a mixed British constitution. The thesis thus offers a fresh interpretation of the relationship between Hume’s concept of philosophical history and his aims and techniques as a narrative historian and seeks to contribute to our understanding of the trajectory of his intellectual and literary career as well as the profound transformation of historical writing in the High Enlightenment.

No description available.