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Humanism, Literature, Religion and Science
Prof. Ilyas Khattak
Introduction
Arthur Clutton Brock in his famous book ‘ The Ultimate Belief ( a book on Christianity and the philosophy of the spirit) writes: “Education ought to teach us how to be in love always and what to be in love with .The great things of history have been done by the great lovers, by the saints , and men of Science and artists , and the problem of civilization is to give every man a chance of being a saint ,a man of science or an artist. But this problem cannot be attempted, much less solved, unless men desire to be saints, men of science and artists”.
These words abundantly suggest and refer to the force of the experience, which lies at the very basis of religion, science and literature. saints, scientist and artists are men endowed with peculiar gifts and insights. They have knowledge and awareness of the mystery and beauty of the universe and the life in it. They feel impelled to communicate and impart this mysterious beauty to whatever they say, write or make. Arthur Clutton. Brock relates this fundamental experience to the aesthetic activity, which in its essence is an activity of the spirit. It is primarily a moral activity that has the power to shape things. Einstein calls this a fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art, science and religion. It is this emotion that engendered religions. Einstein writes, “ A Knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestation of the profoundest reason and the most radiant Beauty that constitutes the truly religious attitude.” And he calls himself a deeply religious man in this and this sense alone.
Arthur Clutton Brock and Einstein have pointed to the fundamental commonality (characteristic) shared by the saints, the men of science and the artists. But before going ahead it would be in order to explain the words constituting the title of this paper.
Humanism -The humanistic attitude
The dictionary meaning of this word is “A non religious philosophy based on liberal human values” It is a worldly and secular philosophy. It is anthropocentric - regarding human beings as the center of existence. It was a European phenomenon and sought to dignify and ennoble man. Renaissance and Reformation were its main manifestations. It liberated thought and brought in complete freedom of expression. Thomas Moore wrote Utopia, the masterpiece of English humanism. In Moore we find the happiest blend of the spirit of Christianity and humanism. Humanists of the Renaissance period were students of the literature of Greek and Latin poets, dramatists, philosophers, historians and rhetoricians. This attitude stood for revival of interest in classical literature and thought. And this Revival came but at the expense of medieval Scholasticism. At its best, humanism helped to civilize man, to make him realize his potential powers and gifts.
Sir Thomas More’s humanism was pure and serene. It brought hope and relief to the English people. Erasmus, a friend of More, said about More, “When did nature mould a temper more gentle endearing and happy than the temper of Thomas More”. Moore stood for freedom of thought. He made fun of scholasticism. He has nothing but hatred and contempt for wars and war makers. Soldiers to him are men slayers”. He extols communism, forbids the acquisition of the property and discredits gold. He makes work compulsory for all men. He believes in the goodness of the human heart. To him tolerance is the general law. His “utopia” is great literary contribution to pure humanism.
Humanism was a movement that was at once a product of and a counteraction to a certain prevalent scholasticism. It was a way of dealing with the disequiluibrium created by the conflict between belief and doubt. Humanism turned out to be a form of philosophy that concentrated on the preparation of a worldly life, rather than on the preparation for an eternal and spiritual life. In its more extreme form humanistic attitude regarded man as the crown and glory of creation, a point of view marvelously expressed by Shakespeare in Hamlet:
“What a piece of work is man!
How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty.
In form and moving how express and admirable in action,
How like an angel in apprehension, how like a God!
The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals”
How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty.
In form and moving how express and admirable in action,
How like an angel in apprehension, how like a God!
The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals”
1. There is a rational and skeptical humanism that stems from the Enlightenment. This is pessimistic and depressing in nature. Francis Bacon was a humanist of this type.
2. An Imaginative (and often religious) humanism that draws it sustenance primarily from the Romantic Movement. This kind of humanism is positive, pleasant and more sympathetic in appeal. Religion and Literature meet in this form of humanism. Genuine humanists would always try to reconcile these two forms. Thomas More, Shakespeare, Milton, Dickens, and Forster quite successfully attempted to reconcile the rational with the imaginative in their works. True art is one product of such a reconciliation.
Science and Scientific Attitude
The scientific attitude of mind insists on reasoning objectively from facts securely established by physical evidence. A Scientist never trusts traditional beliefs. Scientific outlook is the objective outlook that totally discards bias, prejudices and caprices. The world of the scientist is not peopled by hopes, assumption, dreams, longings, ideals, impulses and personal emotions.
Religion and the Religious Attitude
Religion demands total and unconditional belief in one God and in all the prophets of God and in their teachings. The religious attitude is the attitude of blind submission to the Divine will as revealed through the Holy Scriptures.
Literature and the Literary Attitude.
Literature is the interpretation of life through imagination and passions. The subject matter of literature is man and its theme is human life---- its infinite forms and manifestations. The mind of the artist is all-free, unrestricted and can take flight in any direction, can talk of any subject under the sun in a personal way. The literary attitude is the attitude of freedom, of liberal humanism. A literary man is the Universal man –a man for all seasons and climes.
According to Mathew Arnold all knowledge is interesting. Even the isolated items of Knowledge may offer great interest. But there is a natural tendency in us to bring these pieces together and to relate them to certain principles. Religion, science, literature and humanism all relate to one experience, one basic experience of wonder and mystery. They share this commonality at each step and stage. This experience of wonder is in turn related to the sense of beauty in all four. “ How to be in love always and what to be in love with” is the basic principle which integrates the activities of these apparently diverse disciplines. There is an artist in every prophet and vice versa. There is an artist in every scientist and vice versa. There is a scientist in every prophet and vice versa. Literature, religion and science all converge at the basic experience level. They may diverge at some points but they never lose the basic affinity. The fundamental principle of the sense of mystery, the sense of beauty, the basic commonality shared by a man of science, a man of religion and the artist.
Literature and Religion
Man and man’s life is the concern of both religion and literature. Religion has brought meaning and purpose to human life. Life without religion is a nonentity. Religion caters to man’s Life in this world and in the hereafter. Welfare of the human soul is one of the objectives of religion. Man must live a disciplined life in this world so that he may have a happy life in the next world. Inculcation of moral discipline is one of the purposes of religion. Moral activities have their own beauties and immoral action is disgusting, distasteful and nauseating. Literature- genuine literature also has this aim. A true artist is the guiding power and an inspiring force for the society. Literature sustains life. Literature deals with the drama of human life as a whole. Literature stands for the principles of order, symmetry, beauty and effectiveness. According to Milton “ A good book is the precious life blood of a master spirit embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life”. Like religion, literature also deals with the universal and permanent themes such as love, hatred, jealousy ambition, human joys and sorrows, the problem of life and destiny as a whole. Poets, dramatists and novelists always attempt to reveal the whole truth about life. Goethe, Shakespeare, Milton, Homer, Dante, Wordsworth, Dickens are all moralists in this sense.
Shakespeare’s moral influence is profound though silent, like the influence of nature. We drink him up like water and are bettered and yet know not how. His morality is as wide as life itself. And Milton, the truly religious man, wrote “Paradise lost” “to justify the ways of God to man”. He was a man fired with deepest charity to infuse good things into others. Milton inspires us with his courage, temperance, toil and angelic devotion, which carried the life of man to new heights of spiritual grace and dignity. And Dickens’ writings are thoroughly steeped and pervaded by the true religious spirit that provide for all those in suffering---- women, labouring of child, all sick persons, young children, pities all prisoners and captives, defends and provides for the fatherless children and widows and all those who are desolate and oppressed.” This gift of charity motivated George Santyana to write: “If Christendom should lose every thing that is now in the melting pot, human life would still remain amiable and quite adequately human. I draw this comforting assurance from the pages of Dickens”.
Literature and religious attitude meet happily in the pages of Shakespeare, Milton, and Dickens. Shakespeare cares chiefly even when he deals with the beast of chase, for the suffering of the mind. Can there be any more wonderful pleading for mercy than the one given by Shakespeare in the following lines:
“ The quality of mercy is not strained,
It dropeth as the gentle rain from heaven
upon the place beneath, It is twice blessed,
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
It is mightiest in the mightiest :
it becomes the throned monarch better than his crown
His scepter shows the forces of temporal power
the attribute to awe and majesty
Where in doth sit the dread and fear of kings
But mercy is above this sceptred sway ,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings ,
It is an attribute of God himself .
It dropeth as the gentle rain from heaven
upon the place beneath, It is twice blessed,
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
It is mightiest in the mightiest :
it becomes the throned monarch better than his crown
His scepter shows the forces of temporal power
the attribute to awe and majesty
Where in doth sit the dread and fear of kings
But mercy is above this sceptred sway ,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings ,
It is an attribute of God himself .
E.M.Forster generally condemned for his atheistical view has abundant sympathies for the oppressed and the socially deprived people living anywhere in the world. There is a deep religious emphasis in Forster’s humanism. Before him Carlyle had shown great concern for the horrors and terror of the new industrial order .I n one of his writings,”Signs of the Times ” Carlyle made a plea for the recognition of the wholeness of man .He speaks of “The primary, the unmodified forces and energies of man, the mysterious springs of love and fear and wonder, of enthusiasm, poetry and religion, all of which have a truly vital and infinite character”. for Carlyle, as for Forster, this includes an element of mystery. But in the new society man has been belittled and degraded in to mere getting and spending animal and the bonds, both natural and supernatural, which at one time joined men together, have been replaced by the entirely impersonal relationship of what is called the “Cash-Nexus ”. There is a deep religious emphasis in what Carlyle, Ruskin, Morris and Forster comment about the new social order. This new order “manufactures everything except men.” The modern civilization has “eyeless vulgarity ” and betrayal of beauty.
Forster in one of his essays “what I believe” made his well known statement “I do not believe in Belief ”.This irreligious statement was provoked perhaps by the external facts of Christianity ,the ritual ceremonies, that have failed to protect the western man from the horrors of the new industrial order .Forster rejects the creed of Christianity ,not the indwelling spirit of religion . He accepts the creative force of love as panacea for all human troubles. Love, for Forster, is the beloved republic. A love holds out mirror to infinity .He seeks shelter in the holy affection of the heart. A human being lies nearer to the unseen than any organization.
The religious attitude, the humanistic attitude, puts emphasis on the “Inward witness”. It acknowledges the possibility of a faith beyond the form of faith. This phrase looks back to what Arnold said in his “The Study of Poetry”:
“The future of poetry is immense, because in poetry, where it is worthy of its high destinies, our race, as time goes on will find an ever surer and surer stay. There is not a creed that is not shaken, not an accredited dogma that is not shown to be questioned or questionable, not a received tradition that does not threaten to dissolve. Our religion (Christianity) has materialized itself in the fact, in the supposed fact; it has attached its emotion to the fact and now the fact in failing it. But for poetry the idea is everything; the rest is the world of illusion, of divine illusion. Poetry attaches its emotions to the idea. The idea is the fact .The stronger part of our religion (Christianity) today is its unconscious poetry.”
Forster’s humanism is predominantly of the imaginative and religious kind. He always endeavours to stop the rational and skeptical humanism from making inroads into the religious kind. Rather he struggles to unite the two kinds of humanism. Their combined force will bring adequacy to human life.
Literature and Science.
It is not fair to say that the poet has nothing to do with the scientific knowledge of things. The wider issues of that knowledge can never be entirely ignored by poets or artists. A philosopher poet like Wordsworth will take up the scientific knowledge and relate it to the question and interests belonging to the higher life of man. He has the ability and insight to perceive the spiritual meanings of scientific fact. The new knowledge of the time has an irresistible fascination for the poet on its emotional and spiritual side.
Literature and science are the product of the fundamental emotion, the knowledge and awareness of the mystery of life. But in view of the rapidly accumulating scientific discoveries and the vast and far-reaching intellectual changes we must expect to encounter a certain amount of antagonism between science and literature. Feelings can never keep pace with the development of thought. Hence the conservative character of Literature. The process of evolution continues. The universe around us is in a state of flux. Ideas, tastes, values, approaches and attitudes change. In the 17th century a new attitude developed. This was the scientific attitude of mind. This attitude showed its impact in all areas of life. In the domain of literature, in the 16th century Francis Bacon was probably the first person to realize that some thing new was happing around. He saw that a new method of exploring life was growing up. He felt that inquisitive intelligence and the spirit of inquiry were challenging the traditional attitude to life. He defined poetry from the new point of view and called it an illusion. Surprisingly shakespeare remained uninfluenced by this new attitude to life. John Donne was greatly disturbed by the new learning in science and astronomy. He was driven to reassert his position. He wrote a new kind of poetry under the impact of new attitude. Science led him to a skeptical point of view. The new learning had thrown man into confusion. The Royal Society was established and men of letters and men of science had discussions about the scientific thinking and myths and superstition. During, the 18th century the influence of science could be seen in the work of Pope, Swift and Addison. The first major attack on science came from Swift. In the “Battle of Books” he defended the ancients, their traditional method of learning against the modern method of investigation. But Swift was totally unaware of the aim and purpose of science. His attack on Sir Isaac Newton was bred by ignorance and totally uncalled for. To him the scientific investigation was merely a symptom of human vanity. Pope respected Newton and he had seized upon the possibility of Newton’s prism for his poetic imagery. His language and style was under the control of intellect. A number of imaginative writers showed great respect for Newton and one Allan Ramsay wrote an Ode when Newton died.
In the 19th century Newton became the enemy of the imaginative writers. Blake expressed his antagonism to the scientific attitude of mind. Wordsworth expressed his desire to discover mean of cooperation between science and arts. He tired to reconcile the two attitudes. Coleridge also expressed his sympathy with the man of science. He encouraged Wordsworth to take interest in mathematic, astronomy, and chemistry. Keats was against science and disapproved of the cold and dissecting method of science.
Toward the end of the 19th century the happy personal association between some of the romantic poets and the scientists broke down completely due to the new industrial order. Tennyson in his poem, “In Memoriam” confessed the loneliness and despair that the attitude had imposed upon him. The biological science had brought spiritual distress and crisis to writers of the Victorian period. In “Dover Beach”, Mathew Arnold expressed how the sea of faith had been damaged and destroyed by the new outlook.
The Victorian age seems quite disturbed due to the fast growing hostility between science and literature. The progress of science was visible all around. The interaction between science and literature was making the age still more complex. In some areas the dialogue between the two assumed alarming proportions. The direct and indirect impact of science upon the literary scene loomed large. The new temper, the irresistible spirit of science can be seen in the literature of the age. A large number of books that were literary as well as scientific appeared. Huxley tried to popularize science in his writings. He called himself “ The bulldog of Darwin”. He wrote in a lucid and pleasing style. The naturalists except Darwin related science to conduct and beauty. The works of Sir James Thomson, a leading biologist, offer the literary qualities that one looks for in a work of art.
But physical science transformed man’s outlook upon life. The people of the age adopted a materialistic creed. In spite of the desperate efforts of some intellectuals to reconcile religion and morality with science, the two have drifted further apart. Materialistic attitude has brought a change in values. The brutality of the age of machine cannot be ignored. The development of science has brought spiritual barrenness. It has brought skepticism, melancholy and pessimism to the present age.
From this brief survey of the relationship between literature and science it is quite apparent that these areas of knowledge and learning are complementary to each other. Some men of science have appreciated literature. Thomson Huxley recognized the inherent values of classical learning. Tyndall tells us how Tennyson inspired him. It is also said that Darwin showed intense interest in Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth and shelley when he was young. Humphrey Davy and Rowan Hamilton wrote poetry. Ptolemy, the great astronomer was a poet. He wrote several poems in praise of the heavenly bodies.
Conclusion
The fundamental difference between science and literature is with respect to their attitude in finding truth. Literature (poetry) interprets life through the imagination and the feelings, while science deals with things as they are in themselves, in a purely objective way. Science gives a systematic and rational explanation of things. A scientist while engaged in a scientific study may think of the universe as a vast aggregation of phenomena to be examined, catalogued and accounted for, but in everyday human dealings he does not so think of it. He is a man like us. He feels impressed by the mystery and beauty of life. This awareness links him to the world of literature. And out of this mood springs poetry. Science is thus the antithesis and the complement of poetry.
The truth of literature is different from the truth of science. To a gardener a flower is a lily; to a botanist it is of the order of Hexandria monogynia. To a poet it is the lady of the garden. The function of the poetry is to awaken in us a sense of beauty, a vivid sense of sweetness and splendour. Science does not give us this intimate sense of wonder and beauty. Its appeal is to the limited faculty of reasoning and not to the whole man. Poetic truth is totally different from the scientific truth. Poetic truth means fidelity to our emotional apprehension of the facts of life, to the impression, which they make upon us, to feeling, the pleasure or pain, hope or fear, wonder or religious reverence which they arouse. Poetic truth has a human value whereas scientific truth is based on the rational explanation of things. According to Wordsworth there is a pleasure for a poet and for a man of science in the knowledge they have gained. Knowledge is pleasure for both. But the knowledge and pleasure for the man of science is something individual, limited and a personal acquisition whereas that of the poet is universal. The man of science seeks truth as a remote and unknown benefactor. poet sings a song and all human beings join with him.
Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge. A poet will follow the steps of man of science and will be at his side and will add sensation to the objects of science. Wordsworth does not hold that poetry will decline with the advance of science. Poetry has the ability to forge a new idiom for expressing new thoughts.
Mathew Arnold has similar views about the future of poetry. Poetry is worthy of high destinies. Mankind will find an ever-surer stay in poetry. Poetry consoles us and sustains life. Without poetry science will appear incomplete. Religion and Philosophy will be replaced by poetry”. To conclude: “The aim of science is to put, in ordered relations, the facts of the physical world; poetry stresses the interpretation of life in all its aspects which further quickens a wonder world of mystery, spiritual consciousness, vastness and beauty. The scientific attitude has influenced the minds of the men of art in the last three centuries. the process of evolution continues. The universe is in a state of flux.Ideas,values and attitudes change. Contemplation of the universe inspired Tennyson to write:
There rolls the deep where grew the tree
O Earth!what changes has thou seen!
There where the long street roars,hath been
The stillness of the Central Sea.
The hills are shadows and they flow
From form to form, and nothing stands;
They melt like mist, the solid lands,
Like clouds they shape themselves and go.
O Earth!what changes has thou seen!
There where the long street roars,hath been
The stillness of the Central Sea.
The hills are shadows and they flow
From form to form, and nothing stands;
They melt like mist, the solid lands,
Like clouds they shape themselves and go.
References
1) “The Ultimate belief” - Arthur Clutton-brock.
2) “The World of Dickens” Arthur Quiller- Couch.
3) “Shakespeare’s England” Sir Walter Raleigh.
4) “History of English Literature” Legouis and Cazamian.
5) “Selected Essays” T.S.Eliot.
6) “Critical approaches to literature” David Daiches.
7) “Literary terms and literary theory” J.A.Cuddon.
8) “Introduction to the Study of Literature” W.H.Hudson.
9) “Essays in Criticism” Mathew Arnold.
10)“Forster’s Humanism and the Nineteenth century” H.A.Smith.
source:hssrd.org