Samuel Taylor Coleridge Biographia Literaria Chapter 4 Summary !NEW!
Download >>> https://shurll.com/2tAqcZ
Samuel Taylor Coleridge Biographia Literaria Chapter 4 Summary: A Critical Appreciation of Wordsworth's Genius
In this chapter of his Biographia Literaria, Samuel Taylor Coleridge praises his friend and fellow poet William Wordsworth as an original and imaginative genius. He also explains his own purpose in writing this work, which is to explore the nature and source of poetic imagination.
Coleridge begins by recounting how he first discovered Wordsworth's poems during his last year at Cambridge University in 1794. He was struck by the freshness and originality of Wordsworth's poetic voice, which he felt announced \"the emergence of an original poetic genius above the literary horizon\" [^1^]. He was especially impressed by the unpublished poem \"The Female Vagrant\", which he found to be free of the obscurities and defects that marred some of Wordsworth's earlier writings.
Coleridge then met Wordsworth in person in 1795 and became his close friend and collaborator. They worked together on the Lyrical Ballads, a collection of poems that challenged the conventions and expectations of their time. Coleridge contributed the famous \"Rime of the Ancient Mariner\", while Wordsworth wrote most of the other poems, including \"Tintern Abbey\" and \"We Are Seven\". Coleridge also helped Wordsworth write the preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, which outlined Wordsworth's poetic principles and defended his use of simple language and common subjects.
Coleridge then states that his own intention in writing Biographia Literaria is not to repeat or explain Wordsworth's preface, but to investigate \"the seminal principle\" [^2^] of poetic imagination. He argues that imagination is not merely a faculty of fancy or invention, but a creative power that shapes reality and reveals truth. He distinguishes between two kinds of imagination: the primary imagination, which is the universal act of perception and creation; and the secondary imagination, which is the artistic act of modifying and transforming reality according to a higher vision. He also contrasts imagination with fancy, which is a mechanical process of combining images without any deeper meaning or purpose.
Coleridge concludes by warning his readers that his work is not meant for those who are satisfied with superficial or conventional views of poetry. He invites only those who are willing to follow him in his philosophical enquiry into the essence and origin of poetic imagination.Continuing the article:
In Chapter 5, Coleridge critiques the theory of associational psychology proposed by David Hartley, an 18th-century philosopher who influenced Wordsworth. Hartley argued that all mental phenomena are the result of sensations and associations, which are governed by fixed laws of nature. Coleridge rejects this view as too mechanical and materialistic, and denies that associations can explain the higher faculties of reason, imagination, and will. He also questions Hartley's account of the origin of language, which he considers to be arbitrary and inadequate.
In Chapter 6, Coleridge continues his criticism of Hartley by examining his doctrine of necessity, which claims that human actions are determined by prior causes and motives. Coleridge argues that this doctrine is incompatible with moral responsibility, free will, and religion. He also points out the logical inconsistencies and absurd consequences of Hartley's system, which he compares to a \"fairy tale\" [^3^]. He concludes that Hartley's philosophy is not based on empirical evidence or rational arguments, but on a \"prejudice\" [^4^] that favors materialism over spiritualism.
In Chapter 8, Coleridge discusses the problem of dualism, which is the division of reality into two distinct substances: mind and matter. He traces the history of this problem from Descartes, who introduced the distinction between res cogitans (thinking substance) and res extensa (extended substance), to Locke, Berkeley, and Hume, who tried to solve it in different ways. Coleridge criticizes these philosophers for failing to account for the unity and interaction of mind and matter, and for reducing reality to either ideas or impressions. He suggests that a better approach is to adopt a \"dynamic\" philosophy, which views reality as a process of change and development, rather than a static collection of substances. 061ffe29dd