The Function of History (Term Paper Sample)

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English 3210
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The function of "history" in the eighth to the eighteenth century literature works
We are living in the present and plan for besides worry about our future. However, history belongs to the past. Although we have all the demands pressing in from our present living and the anticipated yet to come future, we may ask ourselves why we bother what has gone in literature and other works to be precise. Any given study subject demands justification by its advocates explaining why it’s worth the attention. Throughout the 8th to 18th centuries, an incredible lot took place as far as the world of English literature is concerned. It would be actually impossible to exploit the whole kit and caboodle that took place in this piece of art. However, a quick tour on the wide movements that were involved between these centuries will work well, picking between the 17th and 18th centuries of written literature.
Fundamentally, this English literature era is broken down into three lesser eras, with each having their own sub-eras to just give a sense of context (Legouis et al., 1935). These are;
* The Renaissance era also known as the Jacobean epoch in England,
* Neoclassicism era in 18th century with the 1st half 'Augustan era'.
* The Interregnum, Restoration as well as the Caroline periods in the latter 17th C half.
Talking of the Renaissance era in the British 17th century literature, we find William Shakespeare whose name is the biggest in this field. He wrote various plays as well as poems which were immeasurably popular. Some of the most significant pieces and stand-outs being Hamlet besides Romeo and Juliet, which hit and are still being explored to the present. All other writers in literature are actually compared to this figure often. There also was Ben Jonson, who was a parallel dramatist and poet who is most famous in satirical stage arts which floodlit human blemishes through darkly comedic intrigues. His famous works comprise ‘The Alchemist’ as well as the ‘Bartholomew Fair’. His arts were known by their masques and intricate stage performances produced royal courts. Metaphysical poets like J. Donne were also examples whose works were crafty as well as meditated in heavy subjects like religion and love (Legouis et al., 1935; Snyder, 1979).
Still in the Renaissance era, we find the most crucial cultural landmarks like the printing press that rapidly grew in England allowing mass production of literature for the first time. It was during this era that we had the Bible as the biggest beneficiary of the printing press and in particular the ‘King James Bible’ which was completed in the year 1611. The Bible is still there to the present and we have seen vast re-print which is more definitive and immensely crucial piece of literature during that time and now. It is almost impossible overstating the influence of the bible in English literature.
Also, from the Renaissance era we owe Sir Francis Bacon a lot both as an essayist, great psychologist and scientist. His works began to jell in the course of this passé with is creative works bringing about the present scientific method every scholar is familiar in science classes. Born on 22nd January, 1561 in England, Sir Bacon served as a statesman, scientist, philosopher and essayist in the Renaissance era by adopting Aristotelian ideology proposing an inductive slant called the scientific method which remains the basis of our present scientific autopsy. He is deemed a brilliant mind of the time in spite of his reprehensible dealings. Of major interest in this piece of art, Bacon’s prime contribution to philosophy was the use of the inductive thinking which are the sweeping statements founded on personal instances, an approach that is applied in the present science as opposed to the feudal Aristotelianism hence termed as the pioneer of scientific method (Francis Bacon, 2015).
His views and contributions
According to Bacon, the sole knowledge vital for human beings is primarily based on the ordinary world besides a vivid scientific inquiry system to guarantee human beings’ manipulation of the universe. Although Bacon had high reverence for Aristotle, he reacted to the philosophy as being barren, perverse erroneous in its intents.
The view of knowledge coming from experience of senses and science advancing from experiment besides observation is what is termed as empiricism according to Bacon. During his era, there was utter social and political conflicts in England which laid a fertile ground for modern empiricism in which the way people conceived and believed in some occurrences was put to question by various scholars sphere headed by Bacon who probed on failures of human beings and what ought to be right. In his argument, philosophy ought to be based on inductive thinking rather than deductive syllogism and from mere facts to law axiom (Francis Bacon, 2015). On caution, he proposed that before these induction is put into place the philosopher should be free from false notions which impair the truth that he categorized into four idols classes based on different sources and each with its special hardships and perils:
The Tribe Idols
They are innate weaknesses and penchants conjoint to man’s nature hence hard to completely eliminate but can only be recognized and recompensed for in real sense. These include our inherently dull senses besides being easily deceivable, discerning tendency, wishful thinking and rushing unto conclusions.
The Cave Idols
These vary from one person to another arising from our nature or culture hence reflect peculiar falsifications, chauvinisms, and beliefs derived from diverse family backgrounds, infantile experiences, training, sexual category, creed, social strata and others they include for example special loyalty to an exact restraint theory and having high esteem for selected officialdom.
The Market Place Idols
Bacon described this as hindrances to vibrant thinking arising from interactions with others mainly language special discourses in particular and vocabularies of countless academic stratifications and can be a distinct cause of confusion as at times they are adopted for things that don’t exist.
Theatre Idols
Theatre idols are those ones that are acquired culturally and are not inborn and originate from systems of philosophy, that is, sophistical beliefs (basically on a few nonchalantly experiential instances) (Crampton et al., 2010), empirical philosophy (single-key insight systems) and superstitious philosophy (mixing theology and philosophy).
In Novum Organum by Sir Bacon, he proposes that any scientific method ought to start with investigation, followed by presence listing circumstances underlying the event under study; then the proximity absence so that it is used in identification of unlikely occurrences and lastly comparison to compare and contrast one’s event degree of variance. These steps are then followed by a brief survey for the discovery of the probable cause of the occurrence unlike the emblematic hypothesis. He actually believes that observation plus analysis are sufficient to generating good comprehension for creative minds in reaching further thoughtfulness (Jacob and Margaret, 2010).
Other views
In contrast views, Descartes, another scientist introduced the deductive reasoning where he first frames an educated postulate followed by seeking evidence supporting or disproving the postulate. Although this method did not actually replace inductive thinking, it was proved useful by adding to the scientific tools of the time. However, Descartes did not often adhere to his advocacy for order besides rationality as he put forward as attested in his futile canons on anatomy which were interesting and intricate but untenable in real life expectations. This is despite of the fact that he had contributed enormously into philosophy, science and mathematics for example the Cartesian philosophy which was coherent and adopted by most clergy. Science later made holes in Descartes’s claims in science hence declining his following (Potter and Vincent, 1993).
Contrastingly, Bacon proposed that a true science facts proceeded in nondiscriminatory scales of ascent alongside successive steps uninterrupted and rising from minutiae to less significant axioms; then to intermediate maxims, one on top of another and eventually to the most common. The current meaning of hypothesis could clearly be read from Bacon’s language at the level of lesser axioms that foreshadows this hypothesis idea and the middle axiom theory. Therefore, his method agrees with the advanced origin of science being applied today in advanced scien...