The life within : the Prelude and organic form
Analysis of organic form begins not with plants but with the problem of Cartesian dualism. Inadvertently, its effect was to remove God from the natural world, thus opening the way to atheism. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this was refuted by stress on God's active role in nature. The presence and operation of his intellect was equated with life as the primary force in the natural world. Later natural philosophy developed a theory of power which was also equated with life and mind. The subject of Wordsworth's two-part Prelude is the relation of the mind to this life or permeating spirit, and the epistemological uncertainties which it entails. While proposing a view in which the individual is integrated into the totality, the poem also raises the problem of how the individual can also be contradistinguished from it. Blumenbach, under whom Coleridge studied in 1798-99, proposed a different theory of life in which it was defined as a nisus formativus, or inner self-generating power, which creates the form of the living body. Coleridge developed this into a theory of life as individuation, which resolved the opposition of the infinite and the individual. Study of Kant also showed how the nisus formativus
Young, Robert
Morphology ; Philosophy ; Self in literature
The life within : the Prelude and organic form. Analysis of organic form begins not with plants but with the problem of Cartesian dualism. Inadvertently, its effect was to remove God from the natural world, thus opening the way to atheism. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this was refuted by stress on God's active role in nature. The presence and operation of his intellect was equated with life as the primary force in the natural world. Later natural philosophy developed a theory of power which was also equated with life and mind. The subject of Wordsworth's two-part Prelude is the relation of the mind to this life or permeating spirit, and the epistemological uncertainties which it entails. While proposing a view in which the individual is integrated into the totality, the poem also raises the problem of how the individual can also be contradistinguished from it. Blumenbach, under whom Coleridge studied in 1798-99, proposed a different theory of life in which it was defined as a nisus formativus, or inner self-generating power, which creates the form of the living body. Coleridge developed this into a theory of life as individuation, which resolved the opposition of the infinite and the individual. Study of Kant also showed how the nisus formativus
life within prelude organic form analysis organic form begin plant problem cartesian dualism inadvertently effect remove god natural_world thus open way atheism refute stress god active_role nature presence operation intellect equate life primary force natural_world later natural_philosophy develop_theory power also equate life mind subject two_part prelude relation mind life permeate spirit epistemological uncertainty entail propose view individual integrate totality poem also raise_problem individual also coleridge study propose different_theory life define inner self generating power create form live body coleridge develop_theory life individuation resolve opposition infinite individual study kant also_show