Coming To

Consciousness and Natality in Early Modern England

Häftad, Engelska, 2020

AvTimothy M. Harrison,Professor Timothy M. Harrison,Timothy M Harrison

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In Coming To, Timothy M. Harrison uncovers the forgotten role of poetry in the history of the idea of consciousness. Drawing our attention to a sea change in the English seventeenth century, when, over the course of a half century, “conscience” made a sudden shift to “consciousness,” he traces a line that leads from the philosophy of René Descartes to the poetry of John Milton, from the prenatal memories of theologian Thomas Traherne to the unresolved perspective on natality, consciousness, and ethics in the philosophy of John Locke. Each of these figures responded to the first-person perspective by turning to the origins of how human thought began. Taken together, as Harrison shows, this unlikely group of thinkers sheds new light on the emergence of the concept of consciousness and the significance of human natality to central questions in the fields of literature, philosophy, and the history of science.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2020-09-22
Mått152 x 229 x 23 mm
Vikt481 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor328
FörlagThe University of Chicago Press
ISBN9780226725123

Tillhör följande kategorier

Poesi inom Skönlitteratur
Europas historia inom Historia och arkeologi
Litteraturvetenskap inom Skönlitteratur

"The idea that Eden was a place of discovery from the start is also the motivating insight of Harrison’s Coming To. Before Milton’s time, Harrison argues, 'consciousness' was a moral faculty, interchangeable with what God in book 3 of Paradise Lost calls 'my umpire conscience,' 'place[d] within' fallen humanity 'as a guide.' . . . Milton’s—and Harrison’s—minute attention to the fashioning of each blank verse line pays off in startling insights into the texture of what Milton’s contemporaries were just beginning to call consciousness.”