The metaphysical nature

Baneen Abd Elhurr
9 Jul, 2024


The metaphysical nature


What is Metaphysics?

At its core, metaphysics is the study of what lies beyond the physical world. The term itself combines the Greek words "meta" (beyond) and "physika" (physical things). It delves into concepts that are not easily observed or measured, such as being, existence, and the nature of reality. Metaphysics pushes us to consider the possibilities that go beyond our immediate sensory experiences.

Importance of Metaphysics in Philosophy

Why does metaphysics matter?

Because it forms the bedrock of philosophical inquiry. By questioning the nature of reality, metaphysics influences other areas of philosophy, including ethics, epistemology, and even the philosophy of science. It's the ultimate thought experiment, constantly pushing the boundaries of what we know and how we understand our place in the universe.

Historical Background of Metaphysics

Ancient Metaphysical Thinkers

The roots of metaphysics stretch back to ancient Greece, where philosophers like Plato and Aristotle began exploring the nature of reality. Plato's theory of forms and Aristotle's concept of substance were early attempts to understand what lies beneath the surface of our everyday experiences.

The Metaphysical School of poetry in England can be considered as having been inaugurated by the Jesuit poets Jasper Heywood and Robert Southwell in the late sixteenth century. Yet it is only a generation later through the works of Heywood's nephew, John Donne, that poetry in the Metaphysical style acquired the vitality, soulfulness, and wit that allowed for its triumphant revival in the beginning of the twentieth century. Donne's appeal as a poet lies mostly in his particular handling of the Metaphysical conceit, an element of style which has come to be perceived as the hallmark of the Metaphysical tradition. Early in the twentieth century, it was this element of Donne's style that attracted T.S. Eliot. For decades after the publication of Eliot's influential review of Grierson's anthology of Metaphysical poetry in 1921 and the argument it contained, the conceit was perceived as a literary device that joined together unrelated elements in a far-fetched comparison for greater imaginative effect. At the same time it had come to be considered as representing a dissociation of sensibility. 
  However, since Eliot's time, perceptions of the conceit and Donne's style have changed and evolved. At the end of the last century and at the beginning of ours, new approaches to the conceit appeared that at least historically-speaking, can be thought of as doing more justice to its complexity and its beauty than the approach to conjoined unrelated elements that Eliot's criticism employed. Technically speaking, historically, the conceit owes its structure to Aristotle's metaphor of proportion in which of "four things the second is to the first as the fourth is to the third" (Poetics,2006, p41).

The conceit, as a literary device, had been used a long time before the metaphysical poets. However, at the hands of the metaphysical poets, especially John Donne and George Herbert, it reached its climax of maturity and sophistication that it became the main characteristic feature of the Metaphysical tradition. This paper tries to explore the richness, the sophistication and the depth of the Metaphysical conceit by examining selected poems of both John Donne and George. Herbert trying at the same time to show the differences between Donne's and Herbert s conceits. The study is divided into four main part: Part One introduces the Metaphysical conceit as an extended metaphor having different levels of meaning. Part Two examines selected poems of John Done to explore the significance of Donne's particular use of the conceit. Part Three is devoted to George Herbert's particular use of the conceit as a visual image or by making the whole poem a conceit. The last part is the Conclusion which sums up the results of the study.
1. THE CONCEIT AND THE METAPHYSICAL CONCEIT


 Linguistically speaking, the "conceit" according to K. K. Ruthven- - was originally derived from the Italian word "concetto" which had a variety of meanings in Italian (Ruthven: 4) By the seventeenth century, Cuddon says, it became synonymous with "thought", "concept", "idea", and "conception" and "it might also then denote a fanciful supposition, an ingenious act of deception or a witty or clever remark or idea." He adds that the conceit as a literary term "has come to denote a fairly elaborate figurative device of a fanciful kind which often incorporates metaphor, simile, hyperbole or oxymoron... and 6 which intends to surprise and delight by its wit and ingenuity" (Cuddon,2015,p 165). 

     M. H. Abrams calls one type of the conceit "the Petrarchan conceit" after the Italian poet Petrarch (1304-1374) believing that Petrarch had invented this device and like the Petrarchan sonnet, it was introduced into English poetry by Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) and other Elizabethan poets. He defines the Petrarchan conceit as a type of figure used in love poems that had been novel and effective in the Italian poet Petrarch, but became hackneyed in some of his imitators among the Elizabethan sonneteers. The figure consists of detailed, ingenious, and often exaggerated comparisons applied to the disdainful mistress, as cold and cruel as she is beautiful, and to the distress and despair of her worshipful lover. (Youssef, 2012,P1) . 

     The metaphysical conceit is a reference to the type of conceit used by John Donne (1572-1631) and the other poets of the Metaphysical school. If the Elizabethan conceit is "ornamental or superficial as when the poet compares his mistress's eyes to stars and her teeth to pearls... the metaphysical conceit is functional... it is an intrinsic medium to the poet's intent" (Hameed,2004,p 14).


     This means that a radical change concerning the conceit had taken place at the hands of the metaphysical poets. According to Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the metaphysical conceit is "a kind of discord  concors; a combination of dissimilar images, or discovery of occult resemblances in things apparently unlike....The more heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together" .The sophistication of the metaphysical conceit is mainly due to the use of far-fetched imagery drawn from different fields of knowledge such as geometry, astronomy,  chemistry, geography, philosophy and other sciences that were alien to poetry prior to the metaphysical school. they are the product of the witty mind and therefore, they may amaze the reader rather than delight him. In his essay "The nature of Metaphysical Wit", S. L. Bethell argues that metaphysical wit is found in the metaphor (including the conceit because it is an extended metaphor), and he agrees with Emanuele Tesauro who distinguishes "three ascending grades of the conceit": metaphor, allegory and the "perfect conceit" which "must necessarily take an argumentative form" (Bethell,2012, p89).


 This means that a conceit without logical argument is an imperfect one and this an easily be detected in metaphysical poetry where the conceit and the logical argument can, almost always, be found together. (Youssef, 2012,P2) 


As for the term 'metaphysics", it usually refers to a branch of philosophy concerned with first principles which probes into the nature of things (Webster New World Dictionary and Thesaurus, electronic version). The Metaphysical conceit may therefore be regarded as a literary device that investigates relationships in order to find out what defines their nature. The conjunction of the meaning of these two terms, "conceit" and "metaphysical", not only describes the functioning of a literary device, but may also serve to define Donne's epistemological approach to the created universe. In fact, in both his verse and in several of his prose texts, Donne's manner of investigating the world seems concerned with the exploration of the ties that bind a human being to other individuals, and to the divine. This assessment of Donne's epistemology contrasts sharply with the views expressed by several prominent authors of the earlier twentieth century such as Carey, Leishman, Parfitt, and Eliot himself, who have described Donne as being sometimes a self-centered, egoistical man - as an apostate and an abject flatterer who was strongly motivated by his  pursuit of advancement. Nevertheless, recent critical assessment has refuted these views. The second part of the twentieth century has been in fact characterized by a shift of interest on the part of Donne scholars from his rhetoric to the epistemological discourses that have influenced his poetry. This change of focus has led the critical world to the consideration of the poet's philosophical conception of man and creation. As a result, critics such as Kaskela, McKevlin, and Presti-Russel have defined Donne in terms of his quest for relatedness and his faith in humanity (Man, 2007,p8, p9).


References
 

  • Youssef Hamdi Hamid. Metaphysical Vanity: A Study of John Donne and George Herbert.” Kirkuk University Journal of Human Studies 7.3, a special issue of the College of Education Conference (2012) 

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