1993 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Studies of Milton from the Perspective of History of Ideas
| Project/Area Number |
04610283
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
英語・英文学(アメリカ語･アメリカ文学)
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| Research Institution | University of the Sacred Heart |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
1992 – 1993
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| Keywords | invention of argument / disjunction / rhetoric / Ramean logic / Milton / Paradise Lost / Kanzo Uchimura / St Bartholomew's Massacre |
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| Research Abstract |
Here I wish to make clear what Ramean logic is, why Milton is attracted to it, and how it influences Milton's poetry.
The most distinctive characteristics of Ramean logic are firstly the differentiation between 'artificial' and 'inartificial' in 'arguments', secondly the disjunctive dichotomy in the way of thinking, and thirdly its subsuming rhetoric in accordance with the tendency of Renaissance humanism.
The differentiation between 'artificial' and 'inartificial' reminds me of the Kantian critique of understanding phenomena and reality. The word 'artificial' means 'obvious, natural, discovered by the art of logic', which is contrary to its presentday usage. The word 'inartificial' means 'borrowed, based on testimony or even authority.'
The invocation at the beginning of Paradise Lost shows that an artificial argument is paralleled with an inartificial argument which has the same content, the process of which covers the first four lines.
'To justify the ways of god to men' is nothing but
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'to accommodate the inartificial arguments into the artificial arguments.' Which also seems to me to adopt the method of what is called demythologizing theology.
The disjunctive dichotomical way of thinking and speaking is most remarkably displayd in the temptation scenes. From this viewpoint I interpreted the temptation scene in which Satan tries to make Eve eat the forbidden fruit in Book IX.
Persuasion gave birth to rhetoric, from which logic was refined in classical antiquity. In the mood of anti-scholasticism, Renaissance humanists restored the classical rhetoric into their modern logic. In Milton's Art of Logic, many classical writings are quoted as concrete examples in order to explain the difficulties of the academic terms of logic. In other words, rhetoric serves as a slave to logic, which reminds me that the epic simile has the same role in the main plot in Paradise Lost. Milton was keenly aware of the relation of rhetoric subordinate to logic. It is understood from this that Milton preferred logic to dialectic in spite of the same content conveyed by both words. Less
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