A Comparative Study of the Concept of Compatibilism in David Hume’s Enquiries and Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Associate Professor of English Language and Literature,, Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Tehran. (Corresponding Author).

2 Associate Professor of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

3 Ph.D. Candidate, Foreign of English Language and Literature, Languages Department, Alborz Campus, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The discovery of the motives behind human actions turned into a controversial issue among philosophers during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. While supporters of libertarianism maintained that human actions stemmed from an inner will, the Necessitarians, on the other hand, believed human actions were an effect of previous external causes. David Hume, however, came up with a middle-way solution for this dispute which he named his Reconciling Project. This comparative study aims to discover the concept of the Reconciling Project in the works of Alexander Pope. To achieve this the article would elaborate upon Hume’s thoughts on the theme mentioned above expressed in the eighth chapter of his book An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding entitled Of Liberty and Necessity. It would trace it to the works of Pope by analysing Pope’s views in Essay on Man and his notion of The Ruling Passion. It would be argued and concluded through a comparative method that Hume’s thoughts had found their way into the works of Pope, and both thinkers found human instincts as the real motive behind human actions. Through an intertextual analysis, it would also be concluded that this was either the direct effect of Hume's thoughts on Pope or that both figures were influenced by the same intellectual currents of the eighteenth century, Enlightenment, and secularisation.

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History

  • Receive Date: 12 May 2024
  • Revise Date: 02 July 2024
  • Accept Date: 03 July 2024

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