Preview

An Essay on Man

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1014 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
An Essay on Man
"An Essay on Man" by English poet Alexander Pope is a philosophical poem, which was published, in the 18th century during a historical period called the Enlightenment. A huge emphasis was placed on the ability to think and reason during the Enlightenment. People during this era reflected about a variety of topics. Some people concerned themselves with the issue of God, which consequently caused many to question the church. Others were concerned with the organization of the Universe, and man's place within that Universe. Often times, a literary work can reflect the thoughts and feelings of the society during the period in which it was written. In "An Essay on Man," Pope effectively illustrates the major concerns of the people during the Enlightenment when he addresses man's ability o reason and think for himself, and speculates about man's place in the world, as part of the "great chain of being." The ability to reason was the central focus of the Enlightenment also called "The Age of Reason." Pop begins the poem by appealing to the logic and reason of his audience. He writes, Together let us beat this ample field,/ Try to open, what the convert yield"(lines 9-10). Pope encourages his audience to use the reason they have been given to examine those things that they have been advised against. To reason against those things that have been kept hidden to them. He is trying to bring them into the 18th century, asking them to look for evidence in the knowledge they receive, rather than allowing the church (or other institutions) to spoon-feed them all of their knowledge. Pope's attempt, in writing "An Essay on Man" was to "vindicate the ways of God to Man"(Wilkie and Hurt 292) and warn that man himself is not, dissipate what pride would allow him to believe, the center of all things. The concept of "the great chain of being" is well represented in Pope's "An Essay on Man." Pope addresses the issue of man's place in the Universe when he, "vast chain of being which

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Lindow Man Essay

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Lindow man also known by his scientific name as Lindow II, was discovered in 1984 by two workmen who saw his foot sticking out of a piece of machinery in Lindow Moss in Cheshire England. Through evidence, and after a visual examination and scientific investigation, archaeologists and historians have been able to draw conclusions about Lindow Man’s life and death. Lindow man was an example of a bog body as he was found in a marshy area.…

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Essay on 'Everyman'

    • 311 Words
    • 1 Page

    Everyman is considered as the greatest medieval morality play written by an anonymous author. Because of its religious content and moral message, poets assumed that a priest wrote it. The author of this masterpiece made it allegorical, which means that each figure represents abstract characteristics.…

    • 311 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    (p 370) It is the love for order in mankind that alone prevents our total destruction. Man’s reason is needed to free us from wrong doing and the injustices in life. We went from an inferior way of thinking to slowly acquiring the ability to think for ourselves. Modernity considers human reason to be the most important aspect of Enlightenment. In addition the main connection seen between modernity and Enlightenment is man’s ability to reason and his optimism.…

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was a time in which thinkers believed they could better understand the world around them and one another through scientific reasoning. These thinkers wanted to apply the scientific method to society and its many problems. Some of the things they were questioning were the divine right of Kings, power of the nobles and the power of the Catholic Church. In response to studying these problems some important ideas were formulated. Ideas such as John Locke’s promoted the idea…

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    People change their view on things pretty frequently. One thing that changed significantly is man’s view of man. Man’s view of man has changed through all of time. The Renaissance was an important event that had changed that view. Man’s view of man was changed by the Renaissance because of the art the artists were making, how they saw man’s place in the universe, the things that humans are composed of, and how humans were acting and thinking.…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Enter here Envision a middle aged man that the night before had sat down with his family for dinner. This same man is now being told to do horrific things in the name of his country. Is this man a monster or is he just an ordinary man. This is what is up for debate in Bowing’s book Ordinary Man. Browning state that he believes that these are just ordinary men and throw a variety of different reasons they were forces and overall persuaded to commit awful acts against fellow human beings. There is proof that he was correct that these were just ordinary men. It also might be surprising that this book would show that most if not all men could ultimately come to do the awful actions described thought out the book.…

    • 1647 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    humanities final essay 3

    • 2852 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Meaning is a symbolically-charged idea - it is an idea that is embodied and conveyed by a certain representation, a symbol, whether these symbols are objects or words. Meaning therefore gives sense and significance to ‘things’ that would otherwise be absurd of nature. This leads us to reflect on the power of meaning as a determinant that shapes our visions, beliefs, perceptions and so on. This is why we can speak of the power of literature when meaning is conveyed through words.…

    • 2852 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alexander Pope addresses in "An Essay On Man" the issue of the pride and man and man's emphasis on knowledge. He indicates that in our attempt to gain more knowledge and wisdom that we press beyond the limits, and that some things mankind is not able to know. Pope suggest to the reader to submit to the laws of nature, and do not think or act beyond mankind. He has the concept that there is a divine order and grand scheme of things and to rest in the place…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Man’s Search for Meaning, written by Viktor Frankl, is a memoir about overcoming sufferings to have an optimistic perspective on life in the midst of pain and death. Frankl provides examples of his own experiences after surviving three years in a Nazi concentration camp where his parents, brother, wife, and children died. Using his logotherapy theory, Frankl elaborates on the human pursuit while finding significance through experiences and sufferings. Against a backdrop of violence, cruelty, and death, Frankl creates a perception that by having a meaning or purpose, and a hope in the future, a person can propel through any torment.…

    • 1541 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gun control laws are just as old or older than the Second Amendment authorized in 1791. On June 26, 2008 the District of Columbia v. Heller US Supreme Court majority estimation, Justice Antonin Scalia, LLB, said “ like most rights, the right secures by the Second Amendment is not unlimited; from Blackstone through the 19th century cases, commentators and courts routinely explained that the right was not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatsoever purpose and nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibition on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.…

    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The newly wealthy tradesman and merchant class demanded a share of the social and political power formally held only by the nobility. As a result of the political and economic changes during the eighteenth century, there were major social changes as well. The former rigid class system based on inherited positions of nobility and wealth became far less secure. There were also major religious changes during the 1700s. There was a significant decline in church power and prestige, which resulted primarily from peoples no longer believing in Gods daily involvement in their human affairs. Prior to the Enlightenment, before the discovery of natural laws, people had believed that every event that occurred, no matter how major or minor, was a direct result of Gods intervention. Once scientists discovered that natural laws caused these occurrences, mankind feared God less, and as a result, religious obligations were no longer the primary concern of many people. Rather than focusing on God and the church, people of the Enlightenment focused on man. Alexander Pope, a famous English poet, wrote a rhyming couplet (two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme) that describes well the attitude of the time: Know then thyself; presume not God to…

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Age of Enlightenment

    • 5159 Words
    • 21 Pages

    Inspired by the scientific revolution and prepared to challenge traditional intellectual and theological authority, Enlightenment writers believed that human beings can comprehend the operation of physical nature and mold it to achieve material and moral improvement, economic growth, and administrative reform.…

    • 5159 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the time before the Renaissance, there were two commonly accepted stories of the world’s Creation: those expressed in the first chapters of Genesis. These stories captured the work of God as he brought about the universe, the plants, the animals, and the humans, and they chronicled the fall of Adam and Eve, who used the free will that God had given them in such a way that it brought about their downfall. However, just as the Humanist movement was beginning at the forefront of the Renaissance, a brilliant young writer, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, published his Oration on the Dignity of Man, a work that put forth another version of the creation story. In a time when great thinkers were beginning to speculate on human dignity and rationality, Pico’s Oration on the Dignity of Man provided a refreshing change from the pessimistic Biblical story of the Creation. His portrayal of God, his ideas about the Creation of man, and his description of free will come together in a way that empowers mankind, as he paves the way for future humanist thinkers with his comments and style of writing.…

    • 1896 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mencius is an ancient philosopher of China around the fourth century B.C. He was believed to have similar view to the philosopher Confucius, and he had a strong view on human nature. Mencius believed that human nature was intrinsically benevolent.…

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Christ’s words, “I Came That They May Have Life”, are the title of Chapter II. Here the pope reviews the history of man created in the image of God, and explains the implications of our being so created. Human life has its meaning within the context of the good Creation, and is fulfilled only in union with…

    • 2024 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays