Swift's attack on science 10/27

#10/27/11: When I was reading the third part of Gulliver's travels, I remember thinking to myself that Swift must have had some sort of beef with the scientific community for him to so unabashedly mock theoretical scientific pursuits by virtue of his exploration of Laputa. In Gulliver's travels to Laputa, and specifically their Laputan capital city, Lagado, there is an unmistakable mocking tone used to describe the pursuits with which the philosophers and scientists, high up in the academy at Lagado, undertake in the name of science. From the pursuit of finding a way to change feces back into food, to inventing machines with no real purpose, Swift lambasts the theoretical pursuit of knowledge in his brutal satire. Now, however, having read the entire work and coming to understand the political and social climate in which Swift wrote this book, it begins to make more sense why he undertakes this attack on theoretical and abstract science at this moment in the book. Swift, being a Torie, is a man (supposedly, at least) of the people. He is meant to represent populism and a rural community that has no interest in the abstract scientific findings coming about as a result of an upsurge in empiricism (led by men like Locke and Hume) that dominates the English philosophical and scientific community during this time. Swift forces the reader to make several connections by virtue of his writing, leading us to see that even though it is clear this abstract theoretical knowledge is just that--abstract and theoretical--its applications are concrete and tangible. For example, the people of Laputa do not allow right angles in their architecture because they are abhorred by the idea of practical geometry. This attack on practical science, albeit exaggerated, is most likely being aimed at institutions such as the Academy of Science, who Swift seems to suggest are concerned with taking meaningless "knowledge" and trying to apply it to practical situations, rather than undertaking practical and pragmatic pursuits. I would guess, without the knowledge that electricity would eventually power our entire world, Swift would have mocked Franklin for his experiments with electricity as theoretical and stupid. He also uses this obsession with theoretical and abstract sciences as a political statement, when he suggests that the King of Laputa is monopolizing and elevating this abstract, ultimately meaningless knowledge to suppress his own people, depriving them of sun and rain with the floating capital should the disobey. However, Swift inserts his own thoughts here, it seems, by suggesting that when a people are practical with their resources (the people of a particularly unruly town simply store enough food and water to wait out the king, and force him close enough to the city to capture him) they can destroy these seemingly untouchable, lofty dogmas (whether scientific or religious) through practical thinking and resolve.

The Advancement of Human Understanding

While this week’s readings are vastly different with regards to their specific content, they all certainly can be seen as quite similar when analyzed from the viewpoint of core Enlightenment values (such as progression of science, society, and non-adherence to religion).

Beginning with Francis Bacon’s piece, “The New Science,” we see that the importance of science is finally being recognized. Written early on in the Enlightenment, in 1620, Bacon describes how “human knowledge” and “human power” must be able to propel society to achieve something greater (39). Bacon wrote that human understanding distorted “the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it” (42). Surely he was talking about religion, and how the lens which people were viewing the world was greatly skewed by their religious value systems.

At the later stages of the time period, Condorcet wrote in 1794 on the same values of science that Bacon had touched upon. However, in contrast to Bacon’s writing, Condorcet believed that society had already progressed a great amount as we had begun to research and discuss phenomenon that had previously gone unnoticed. He wrote, “prejudice has been destroyed, and the human understanding in some sort rectified; after having been forced into a wrong direction by absurd objects of belief, transmitted from generation to generation, taught at the misjudging period of infancy, and enforced with the terrors of superstition and the dread of tyranny” (67). Essentially, he is adding onto Bacon’s point that religions lead society in the wrong direction, and that now that we have accepted science human understanding is what it should be.

We read example of science coming into our lives in Franklin’s many small anecdotes on the occurrences of weather (and how to explain them rationally), and with his famous kite experiment. In addition, Buffon’s piece displays how a diversity of topics was being explored during the time. His writing on the many species of rats, and their varying names and whatnot, is a small example of how acquiring all of this new knowledge allowed for us to get out of the period in which there was an “infant-darkness of mankind” with regards to human understanding of the world (61).

Finally, on a completely different note, John Cleland’s very graphic “Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure,” is more than simply just a work of erotic fiction. Published in 1749, the his novel appalled the bishop of London and most likely many other citizens, as sex was not talked about in this open of a manner at the time. His work can therefore be seen as another way of challenging what was perceived as acceptable at the time. Denis Diderot then adds onto to the same notion that Cleland was getting at by stating that sex and religion are essentially incompatible, and that something is very wrong with that as, “The propagation of beings is the greatest object of nature” (266). These various works all challenged pre-conceived notions and (in their own unique ways) advocated for the advancement of human understanding.

“The Kite Experiment,” in context

Ben Franklin’s “The Kite Experiment” first appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette, one of the most prominent newspapers of the time. It was published on October 19, 1752, when Franklin was in his forties. The Gazette was established in 1728 by a man named Samuel Keimer, but was purchased by Franklin and his associate, Hugh Meredith, in the following year. Largely considered to be the New York Times of the era, the weekly paper published a wide variety of material including editorials, anecdotes, advice, world (read: western hemisphere) news, classifieds, letters, advertisements, as well as scientific and philosophical information. Additionally it re-published important documents, such as The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, The Federalist Papers, and Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. The archives of this historical newspaper provide a wealth of information about the lifestyle and daily practices of colonial Americans from a first-hand perspective. It ran until 1800, surviving only ten years after Franklin’s death.

While reading the newspaper, the original publication methods and layout seem at first convoluted and disorganized by modern standards. The Columns are not always labeled or titled. Sometimes they appear with section headers, but there is no color-coding or pagination similar to today's papers. However the format is actually copied from English papers and follows a standard model of the time. Generally, the cost of materials and machinery to publish with forced economic use of limited space, hence most issues were four pages in length, some were six.[1] According to Charles E. Clark and Charles Wetherell, the format of seventeenth and eighteenth century papers was created on 16 November 1667 with the publishing of the first issue of Oxford (later London) Gazette. This set the standard order for newspapers: transcripts of official public announcement, foreign news, local news, and then advertisements.[2] Keimer adopted this form with some modifications. For instance, he filled page one with alphabetical excerpts from Ephraim Chambers’s Cyclopaedia, a practice that was abandoned with Franklin’s first issue (as the previous 39 had reached the word “Air”). With Franklin at the helm, page one contained “official transcripts, essays, and news, preceded occasionally by letters. Pages two and three were chiefly news pages, and page four was devoted overwhelmingly to advertisements.”[3] The paper had just two columns until Franklin expanded it to three in 1742. This change is seen as a result of modified printing techniques and equipment as well as “a reflexive adaptation to the increasing demand for advertising.”[4] In fact, according to Clark and Wetherell’s article, numbers and space devoted to advertising first surpassed news in the early 1730s, reaching a peak during the 1750s.[5]

The font is also slightly foreign compared to current standards. From what I understand, this is the typical font of business transactions and formal documents. It seems a little foreign to the modern eye, and there are slight differences that you may have noticed earlier this semester when we have read from similar original source material. For example, the lowercase "s" appears in the elongated form (strikingly similar to a lowercase "f") if is the first letter of a word, a middle letter (not last), or twice in a row (as in "glass"); additionally most nouns are capitalized, regardless of their importance or placement in a sentence. Some words may appear with different spellings from what modern readers would consider correct. Actually, you might notice some words spelled differently within the same issue. That is because the Pennsylvania Gazette predates Noah Webster's first efforts to standardize American English in his earliest dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, in 1806. Before the 19^th century, no such standards existed.

[Did you know? The Pennsylvania Gazette published the first political cartoon, the famous "Join or Die" Snake, on May 9 1754 - just two years after “The Kite Experiment.”]

“The Kite Experiment” begins in the first column on the second of four pages in issue number 1243. It is a medium length article in the news section of the issue. The heading is “PHILADELPHIA, October 19.” The other cities described in the section are London, New York and Boston. Strangely enough, there doesn’t appear to be a title for the article, it simply begins with an enlarged first letter, as most of the other articles do.

Reading “The Kite Experiment” in its original context provides a new perspective on the daily lives of those living in the mid-18th century. A middle class woman claims authorship of the first article in the issue. She details her struggles in finding a husband and in earning a living, ultimately providing some practical advice for her readers, while pleading the editor to help educate women: “the Reason why I wish you would write upon this Subject, and persuade all Parents to educate their Children in Proportion to their Circumstances, and to assure all those of my Sex that labour under the Prejudices of Education […] in England, Service is no Slavery nor is it any Disgrace, but rather an Honor to any one […] for sure no thing can be shameful that is honest.” This is the first article under the Gazette's headline, the first words a reader would see. The source is cited at the beginning of the article as “From a late London News-Paper, to the Author &c.” While this article highlights the proliferation of the middle class, an advertisement on the following page for two publications on ethics tells us that colonials are also interested in philosophy. It reminds us that these are people in a new land trying to figure out their world. The cost of the publications Noetica and Ethica are three shillings and nine-pence, or about $30 in today’s money. The titles of these publications are in Latin, as are much of the ads themselves, suggesting that these are catered for the well educated. Also advertised are two almanacs, The Pocket Almanack and Poor Richard’s Almanack, both for the year 1753. These advertisements, which appear just under those for the publications in Latin, appear to appeal to a more general audience. It seems both demographics are considered as part of the readership as Franklin and Meredith appeal to each in this section. All four of these texts appear to be published by the same publisher as the Gazette, which serves the double function of self-advertising as well.

While the ads for scientific and philosophical texts suggest a cultured and well-read readership, some of the classifieds remind us of the benighted practice of servitude and slavery. More ads detail ships leaving for ports across the globe – from Antigua, Barbados, South Carolina, London and Rotterdam, to name a few. The wide range of topics supports this publication catering to the masses, the everyday colonial people. This becomes the prime audience for Franklin to promote the emerging wonders of the scientific world. By publishing his findings in the Gazette, he bridges the gap between the intellectual elite who are “doing” science in the old world and the commonplace colonial person, who may be more concerned with basic survival than innovation – or otherwise unaware of their potential successes in the area. Franklin desires to spread the wonderful and life-changing ideas of science to the general public. He wants to bring it down from the academic, studied, and technical heights to the level of the general population. He wanted science to be for everyone, that’s way he mixes this anecdotal article in with the social advice, ads for runaway Irish servants, and other everyday material.

Furthermore, Franklin leaves the article anonymous. In light of the other articles we’ve read by him, this hardly seems unintentional. While his publication “Experiments and Observations on Electricity” in 1751 (the year before “The Kite Experiment”) makes him an authority on the topic, electricity was hardly a well-understood phenomenon at a scientific level at the time. It did however make him an internationally star. Attaching his name to the paper would seem to lend popularity or even credibility to the article—wither would seem to lead to more issues sold; however, Franklin leaves his name off the article. At heart he is a curious and intelligent individual with aspirations to understand and tame nature—and to show the people of colonial America that with simple means they can too. This drive is evidenced by how he sets up the article. He talks about how the experiment has been accomplished in Europe, but that those attempts were flawed, or at least not completed up to Franklin's standard. Franklin then details his own version of the experiment, one that is immediately and easily reproducible for the general public. This not only provides entertainment in literature form, but also allows the readers to recreate their own version with a small about of cheap materials. Moreover it gets to the heart of the Enlightenment, and what the era means specifically for Franklin: the universal spread of knowledge and with it the educating of the everyman. He provides logical advice for the recreation of the experiment, like flying the kite before the storm grows to full strength, and to stand under some cover. Ultimately, it seems that Franklin doesn’t take credit for the experiment because it means more to him this way. In my opinion, he doesn’t take authorship because the effect of the anonymity in conjunction with the experiment’s ease of reproduction creates a potent article, with an impact beyond even the scope of understanding of its readers—the reorganization of intellectual stock among the people.

The Pennsylvania Gazette is regarded as the New York Times of the 18th Century. It had a strong reputation as well as numerous followers, critics and contributors. The Gazette functioned primarily as news source for readers, with segments detailing current events in the other major colonial cities, as well as back in London. Most importantly, it had Benjamin Franklin at the helm, writing and publishing week in and week out. The visionary had the foresight to introduce the sciences to the common people and the means and savvy to accomplish doing so. His publication of “The Kite Experiment” is just one example of the numerous methods he had a bettering his world.

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[1] Clark, Charles and Wetherell, Charles. The Measure of Maturity: The Pennsylvania Gazette. The William and Mary Quarterly, third series, Vol. 46, No. 2 (Apr., 1989), p. 285. Online access at

[2] Ibid, 283.

[3] Ibid, 284.

[4] Ibid, 289.

[5] Ibid, 290.

More Than a History of Mediation

Siskin and Warner’s “This is Enlightenment” brings up many interesting points worthy of discussion. In their text, the authors essentially state that the enlightenment was an event in the history of mediation. Or in other words, it was an event in the history of media. While I certainly agree that a large portion of the enlightenment had to do with the mainstream proliferation of media, I still find their argument to be somewhat narrow. For example, when I think of the enlightenment and on what we have read thus far in the course, the enlightenment seems to have been more about defying the common day conceptions of religion and other ingrained beliefs, in pursuit of promoting science and other well informed ideas. It was a period of daring to know, as Kant would say. The enlightenment was not only about the well known philosophers and the “enlightenment elite” publishing their findings, but was also largely about breaking down the intellectual wall that the laypeople in various countries faced as for centuries they had been intellectually deprived and uniformed with regards to many facets of society.

As Kant wrote, the enlightenment was about men becoming “more than machines.” They were able to finally become informed due to the proliferation and saturation with regards to the many media sources of the time. This time period was more than just a simple history in the spread of media; it was about countries progressing and societies becoming more sophisticated. The well-known philosophers of the time were the primary persons who allowed for this knowledge to become widespread, and they came from all over the world (England, France, Germany, U.S., etc.). For example, they would often write to each other sharing ideas and critiques of one another’s pieces of work. This further allowed for the citizenry of the various countries to become better informed and intellectually “enlightened.”

The enlightenment was more than just a period in history, it was an intellectual and worldwide societal movement. It will certainly be interesting in the upcoming weeks to trace the involvement of Benjamin Franklin during this period as he essentially went from a nobody literally writing behind a veil to one of the most prominent enlightenment contributors.

Religion in the lives of Newton and Bacon

Luminaries Francis Bacon and Sir Isaac Newton share a common characteristic that separates them from other scientists of their time. They both valued a belief in God, or a higher power, despite the movement towards reason and science during the Enlightenment period. Although Francis Bacon founded his work upon reason and evidence through experimentation, he rejected atheism because of his belief that it served as a handicap to philosophy. He is quoted as saying, "It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion; for while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them confederate, and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity." Bacon saw that society was turning away from religion because of the lack of God’s presence in philosophy of the time. He argued that the mind of an atheist would eventually lead one to insufficient understanding of individual and social truth.
Sir Isaac Newton took into account the importance of God through more of a numerical approach. His unprecedented advancements in mathematics and mechanics were achieved through his belief that all his science revolves around mathematics and numbers. Newton took this same theory and applied to the Bible. He saw numbers as imperative to understanding God's plan for history through his written word. He worked on biblical numerology and theology, stating that in his system of physics, God is essential to the nature and absoluteness of space. In Newton’s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, also known as Principia, he writes that the magnificent arrangement of the solar system could only be the work of a “an intelligent and powerful Being.” He acknowledges that someone is responsible for the way Earth is made, someone with great vision. Newton’s relationship with God varied from Francis Bacon’s, but the acknowledgment of religion in each philosopher’s life left a lasting impact on science during the Enlightenment period.