Reflection 3

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

        Today Classical Literary Criticism, the first group presentation, used clips online to show the different sides of sublimity. It was quite interesting how it was arranged. The five sources of sublimity were discussed which include: conceived of great thoughts; strong and inspired emotion; certain kinds of figures; noble diction; and elevated word arrangement. Sublimity is difficult or impossible to resist because it has a strong impression on the memory. Real sublimity contains much “food for thought.” The group emphasized that it is better to look for a lesser real diamond than for a perfect zirconium.

          I liked Dr. Wexler’s lecture about Rene Descartes (1596-1650) who was responsible for the phrase, “Cogito ergo sum” (“I think; therefore I am”) (Lacan, Norton 1164). Descartes was emphasizing—one thing you can be sure of is that you exist, thereby setting up a dualistic system. The things that make it a dualism are self and other things. Descartes was a rationalist who believed in autonomy—a severance from self and what. At this time in history rationalism, imperialism, and skepticism existed. Descartes believed that if you knew the world, than you could manipulate the world. This one statement holds a lot of impact on society, as was “Cogito ergo sum.”

          Mc Keon was in the Romance/Idealism era; however, it was giving way to Naïve Empiricism (through the senses). During this time it was all about whether it was fact or truth. Sociological shifts were parallel to epistemological shifts going from Naïve Empiricism to Extreme Skepticism. The progression was from aristocratic to progressive ideologies to conservative to aristocratic (romantic).

          Alexander Pope had another word of advice in “An Essay on Criticism” stating “Make use of ev’ry Friend—ev’ry Foe" (Pope, Norton 351). This statement is quite a mouthful and has been used by many throughout the past and continues to be upmost in a lot of minds today. Pope did not want to offend anyone by leaving them out of his lengthy critical essay, yet in one short sentence, includes everyone!

          Immanuel Kant was an interesting German idealist from the 18^th C. who taught phenomena (see on a daily basis); noumenon (something as itself); and, synthetic (an a priori and a posteriori combo). In “Critique of Pure Reason,” Kant was the first to introduce the terms “analytic” and “synthetic,” dividing the propositions into types. Enlightenment to Kant was man emerging from immaturity that was self-imposed. I thought it was interesting how he spoke of beauty as a disinterested judgment and desire as interested (I want X). He said that if you appreciate something, you do not desire it and it is a judgment of art. There is much wisdom in this statement.         

          Class today was on the move and packed full of information and advice!

Word Count: 460

                                          Rene Descartes

Works Cited

“Analytic—Synthetic Distinction.” En.wikipedia.org.
          Wikipedia, 3 April 2011. Web. 22 February 2011.
“Immanuel Kant—What is Enlightenment.”
          30 September 1784. Web.22 February 2011.
            http://www.english.upenn.eduu/~mgamer/Etexts/kant.html.
Leitch, Vincent B., ed. The Norton Anthology of
           Theory and Criticism, New York: W. W. Norton &
           Company, 2010. Print.