English 1028F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Anthropocentrism

• School: Western University
• Department: English
• Course: English 1028F/G
• Professor: Christopher Keep

Document Summary

Shifted the attention from the inward world (souls, spirits) to the outward world. We were less concerned with the plight of our souls and the world that presents itself to our visual senses. The world that was knowable through our rational intellection. The world was a mechanical problem that could be solved by human powers. Real knowledge produces a predictable result: he strips away and simplifies the human. Holds that there are aspects of experience that are not reducible to mechanical laws of cause and effects. Champions the aspects of experience that distinguish the human from the mechanical: ex. Appreciation of beauty, desire for justice, concern for reality. Focuses on the inward parts of ourselves, the inner life of our mind. There is no way to fully know everything. The world is an effect of our perceptions. Concern for the universal condition of things, looks at similarity while effacing the difference.