Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1968. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--Rostock.

No description available.

Most considerations of Thomas Carlyle centre around one aspect of his thought or writing. Carlyle’s comprehensive method of writing - selecting a portion of a philosophical or practical system here which suits his purpose, rejecting a component of another system there - would seem to defy complete analysis and explanation under any single heading. To those seeking an understanding of Carlyle’s personal religion and philosophy, Sartor Resartus forms the central document. To other men who could not fathom this transcendantal, mystical thinking Carlyle left his practical gospel of “Work” and “Duty” for their edification. The men who were to lead their fellows in society to the best possible way of life were the “Heroes”, the intuitive seers of Carlyle’s ideal government. But behind and beyond all these conceptions the question remains - what was the fundamental core of Carlyle’s philosophical system, which he applied in a most practical way to everyday social life? What sanctions - divine, intuitive or logical - did he have for taking his most pronounced, absolutist view of life and government? How did this belief begin, and can its development and consistent application be traced in Carlyle’s writings? The object of this study will be to establish that Carlyle’s ultimate authority in all his pronouncements is what is usually referred to in his writings as the “Laws of Nature”.[...]

Thesis--Rostock.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1938. / Published also without thesis note. Bibliography: p. 209-216.

Zugl. Manchester, Univ., Diss., 2006 / Hergestellt on demand

Thesis (doctoral)--Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg, 1918. / Published simultaneously in Zeitschrift für Politik, Bd. 11. Vita. Bibliography: p. [ix]-xi.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1983. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 361-365).

Among critics there has been considerable divergence of opinion on almost all aspects of Carlyle's writings. This contradiction and confusion can be traced in part to the fact that Carlyle's stand has an emotional and personal basis which makes an objective assessment of the man difficult, and in part to the fact that most critics have taken Carlyle's theories singly with no understanding of the one central theory upon which all others depend. This thesis is an attempt to draw together the scattered parts of this central theory and to show that Carlyle had a unified and consistent philosophy with it as a core. Basic to Carlyle's philosophy is the concept of a God (or Divine Idea) who has infused the physical universe with moral force. The physical universe is therefore a complex of forces, moral force originating with God, and immoral or amoral forces arising from the material nature of the universe. The tendency in the resultant struggle of these forces is always towards good and God since only acts which agree with the divine Laws of Nature can survive. Man, too, is a physical being imbued with a divine soul. It is the nature of the soul to worship God in all his manifestations and to seek truth and justice. A Selbst-todtung, that is, a partial annihilation of self, is required to free man from his material desires and to turn his energies to the service of his spiritual self and of God. Because all men are joined by a common brotherhood in God, intercourse between them is marked by a sense of justice and affectionate loyalty. And in society man finds scope for the full development of himself. The core of a society is a hierarchy on which all men are ranked, their position on the hierarchy being determined by the extent to which they understand God's plan for the universe and work to further that plan. Those who see the plan most clearly and work most effectively are the Heroes. Work here means acting according to the Divine Plan to bring order out of chaos, and is, in this sense, a form of worship. In our universe the struggle of the ideal to manifest itself in the actual results in constant change, but throughout the change, whatever of good has been discovered by one generation is preserved and passed on to the next because the soul of man prefers good and abhors evil. Thus man is the agent of historical change, but God, acting through the soul of man, is the first cause. The study of history must therefore begin with the study of the men involved, but final explanation of history lies with God. It is the office of the artist-historian to show how order has been created out of chaos and how ideals have gradually got themselves recognized. Some critics have changed that in later life Carlyle made judgements and held opinions completely contradictory to his earlier opinions. Particularly, it is charged that he took an illiberal political stand, that he became an admirer of successful power, and that he turned against the common man. Whether these charges are true or not, the opinions upon which they are based are derived from the same philosophy which Carlyle delineated in Sartor Resartus. It is the claim of this thesis that Harrold was right when he said that, "By the autumn of 1834, the struggling, self-torturing young man of 1819 had fashioned for himself a fairly consistent philosophy of life,"¹ and, furthermore, that Carlyle persisted in this philosophy to the end. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate