Thomas Blackwell (scholar): Difference between revisions

| name = Thomas Blackwell

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| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1701|8|14|df=y4}}

| birth_place = [[Aberdeen]]

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1757|3|6|1701|8|14|df=y}}

| death_place = [[Edinburgh]]

|workplaces alma_mater = [[Marischal College]], [[University of Aberdeen]]

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'''Thomas Blackwell''' the younger (4 August 1701 – {{snd}}6 March 1757) was a classical scholar, historian and "one of the major figures in the [[Scottish Enlightenment]]."<ref>Wykes, David L. (2011). "The Revd John Aikin senior Kibworth School and Warrington Academy,." inIn: ''Religious Dissent and the Aikin-Barbauld Circle, 1740–1860''. Cambridge University Press, p. 31.</ref>

In the ''Enquiry'' Blackwell considered why Homer was supreme as an epic poet and concluded that this was owing almost entirely to natural forces.<ref>"In 1735 Thomas Blackwell, Professor of Greek at Aberdeen, had published his ''Inquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer''. It made a considerable impression both at home and abroad, because it hit the mind of the age by tracing Homer's excellence to the happy concurrence of natural conditions." — Jebb—Jebb, Richard Claverhouse (1904). "The Homeric Question,." inIn: [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t8jd4s873;view=1up;seq=7 ''Homer: An Introduction to the Iliad and the Odyssey'']. Boston: Ginn & Company, p. 116 (footnote).</ref> Homer was the outcome of a specific society and natural environment,<ref>Labio, Catherine (2004). ''Origins and the Enlightenment: Aesthetic Epistemology from Descartes to Kant''. Cornell University Press, pp. 39-4039–40.</ref> which combined to shape the inherited culture and produce a setting highly favourable to epic poetry.<ref>Mack, Ruth (2009). ''Literary Historicity: Literature and Historical Experience in Eighteenth-century Britain''. Stanford University Press, p. 139.</ref> Blackwell’sBlackwell's idea that, instead of being innate as hitherto supposed, culture was learned and continually changing, was to become one of the basic assumptions of modern [[cultural anthropology]].<ref>“First"First, the state of the country, where a person is born and bred; in which I include the common manners of the inhabitants, their constitution civil and religious, with its causes and consequences: Their manners are seen in the ordinary way of living, as it happens to be polite or barbarous, luxurious or simple. Next, the manners of the times, or the prevalent humors and professions in vogue: These two are public, and have a common effect on the whole generation. Of a more confined nature is, first, private education; and after that, the particular way of life we choose and pursue, with our fortunes in it. From these accidents, My Lord, men in every country may be justly said to draw their character, and derive their manners. They make us what we are, in so far as they reach our sentiments, and give us a peculiar turn and appearance: A change in any one of them makes an alteration upon us; and taken together, we must consider them as the molds that form us into those habits and dispositions, which sway our conduct and distinguish our actions.” — Blackwell"—Blackwell (1735). ''An Enquiry Into the Life and Writings of Homer''. London: E. Dilly, p. 11.</ref>

Civilisation brought advances in material terms but also artificiality and corruption and a loss of the heroic vision of earlier periods. Homer bridged the transition between modernity and the old heroic ethos, and as a plebeian was heir to a rich popular culture which gave realism and vividness to his verses. Blackwell argued that Homer had been an oral poet whose songs had been edited into developed epic form long after his death.<ref>Grobman, Neil R. (1979). "Thomas Blackwell's Commentary on The Oral Nature of Epic", ''Western Folklore'' '''38''' (3), pp. 186-198186–198.</ref>

''Enquiry'' had a high reputation with Blackwell's contemporaries<ref>"Blackwell's ''Enquiry'' was one of the most influential works of eighteenth-century classical philology, an inspiration not only to British scholars but to intellectuals in other countries, principally Germany, as well." — Bauman—Bauman, Richard & Charles L. Briggs (2003). ''Voices of Modernity: Language Ideologies and the Politics of Inequality''. Cambridge University Press, p. 90.</ref> ([[Gibbon,_Edward Edward|Gibbon]] praised as "an effort of genius";<ref>Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1984). ''Biographia Literaria, Or, Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions'', Vol. 7, Princeton University Press, p. 40.</ref>; [[Johann_Gottfried_HerderJohann Gottfried Herder|Herder]] called a "key" to Homer<ref>Simonsuuri, Kirsti (1979). "Thomas Blackwell: The Problem of Homer's Genius,." inIn: ''Homer's Original Genius: Eighteenth-century Notions of the Early Greek Epic (1688-17981688–1798)''. Cambridge University Press, p. 101.</ref>) and he his credited as having revived the study of Greek literature in the North of Scotland.<ref>Anderson, Peter John (1906). ''Studies in the History and Development of the University of Aberdeen''. Aberdeen University Press, p. 207.</ref>

As the ''Letters Concerning Mythology'' were first published in 1748 there were nineteen letters in all, the first six by an anonymous hand. Blackwell was responsible for letters seven to nineteen. Their content was as bold and original as the book on Homer had been. Classical mythology had been discussed throughout the Christian era from a variety of unsympathetic standpoints: firstly by [[Euhemeristic]] critics who saw it as a fanciful form of history; next by Christian commentators who treated the classical gods as thinly-disguised [[demon]]s; and finally by modern rationalists who saw the system as ultimately irrational and meaningless. Blackwell took a radically different view. He saw mythology as a deeply civilising influence, which, if its allegorical intention were interpreted sympathetically, was an important key to the world-view of classical antiquity.

Ordinary people may have accepted the stories of the gods at face value, but the intelligentsia had regarded ‘the'the old Divinity’Divinity' as conveying profound insights into the nature of reality but doing so in symbolic terms,<ref>"The Gods of the Ancients, you see, appear in a double Light; as the Parts and Powers of Nature to the Philosophers, as real Persons to the Vulgar; the former understood and admired them with a decent Veneration; the latter dreaded and adored them with a blind Devotion," and he added, "Has not the same thing happened in modern religious Matters?" (8th Letter, p. 62f).</ref> and these Blackwell set himself to interpret, beginning in earnest with his Ninth Letter, of mythology as "Instruction conveyed in a Tale".<ref>Ninth Letter, p. 60.</ref> He drew on a wide range of evidence from a variety of sources including not only the literary myths in Greek and Latin and the [[Orphic Hymns]], but French, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew and Arabic<ref>Tenth Letter.</ref> texts, attempting to isolate the surviving original mythic strain from layers of later accretions.

[[File:Memoirs of the Court of Augustus, Vol. 3, 1763.jpg|thumb|250px|upright|''Memoirs of the Court of Augustus,'' Vol. 3, 1763]]

In ''Memoirs of the Court of Augustus'' (3 vols., 1753–63), Blackwell approached his subject as a practitioner of intellectual history, calling it ‘This'This difficult Science of Men’Men'. (p.&nbsp;5) He showed how individuals were defined by society, and went on to trace the causes of Rome's developing from an obscure hamlet into a great imperial power. Rome’sRome's ethos had originally been austere and military and its original institutions democratic ones.

In a set of articles, published in 1897 by distinguished Brazilian scholar [[Araripe Júnior|Tristão de Alencar Araripe Júnior]],<ref>The first article was originally published in ''Revista do Brasil'', Ano I, No. 3, September 1897, pp. 73–76; the conclusion, in the following issue of the magazine, No. 4, 31 October 1897, pp. 94–98.</ref> Blackwell was credited with being a precursor of [[Hippolyte_TaineHippolyte Taine|Taine]]'s ideas concerning the contextual study of works of art.<ref>Araripe Júnior (1963). "Um Precursor de Taine,." inIn: ''Obra Crítica de Araripe Júnior'', Vol. III, 1895-19001895–1900. Rio de Janeiro: Ministério da Educação e Cultura/Casa de Rui Barbosa, pp. 249–256.</ref> "There was,... in the last century, a Scottish critic who innovatively applied to Homer the same processes of the master of modern criticism," [[Araripe Júnior]] wrote:

Blackwell's theory of the formative effects of climate<ref>"It's essential at the outset to understand the meaning of climate in the eighteenth century. It does not have its meteorological denotation; instead, Johnson defines it as 'A space upon the surface of the Earth, measured from the Equator to the polar circles in each of which spaces the longest day is half-an-hour longer' (Dictionary, 10th E. [London, 1792]). Cf. the 1771 EncyclopaediaEncyclopædia Britannica: climate is "a space upon the terrestrial globe." — Berry—Berry, Christopher J. (1974). "'Climate' in the Eighteenth Century: James Dunbar and the Scottish Case," ''Texas Studies in Literature and Language'' '''16''', No. 2, p. 281.</ref> on our character and culture<ref>"In the division, commonly made of climates, the rough and cold are observed to produce the strongest bodies, and most martial spirits; the hotter, lazy bodies with cunning and obstinate passions; but the temperate regions, lying under the benign influences of a genial sky, have the best chance for a fine perception, and a proportioned eloquence. Good sense is indeed said to be a product of every country, and I believe it is; but the richest growths, and fairest shoots of it, spring, like other plants, from the happiest exposition and most friendly soil.” — Blackwell"—Blackwell (1735), p. 5.</ref> greatly impressed and influenced [[Johann Gottfried Herder]],<ref>Norton, Robert Edward (1991). ''Herder's Aesthetics and the European Enlightenment''. Cornell University Press, p. 60.</ref>, and it's well known today how [[Hippolyte_TaineHippolyte Taine|Taine]] drew heavily on the German philosopher's ideas.<ref>"Taine's indebtedness to Herder has not yet fully been recognized. Every element of Taine's theory is containd in Herder's writings." — Koller—Koller, Armin H. (1912). "Johann Gottfried Herder and Hippolyte Taine: Their Theories of Milieu," ''PMLA'' '''27''', p. xxxix.</ref><ref>Hoyrup, Jens (2000). ''Human Sciences: Reappraising the Humanities Through History and Philosophy''. SUNY Press, p. 157.</ref><ref>Sternhell, Zeev (2004). "Fascism: Reflections on the Fate of Ideas in Twentieth-Century History,." inIn: Michael Freeden, Ed., ''Reassessing Political Ideologies: The Durability of Dissent''. Routledge, pp. 92–115.</ref><ref>Evans, Brad (2005). ''Before Cultures''. University of Chicago Press, p. 90.

Blackwell’sBlackwell's work enjoyed a high contemporary reputation, and for nearly half a century he was regarded as the foremost Homeric scholar in Europe. But his Scottish Whig politics attracted bitterly hostile criticism from conservatively- minded English critics like [[Samuel Johnson]],<ref>Greene, Donald (2009). ''The Politics of Samuel Johnson''. University of Georgia Press, p. 173.</ref> and his achievement was long cast into the shadow.<ref>"Inexplicably, historians have often made short shrift of Blackwell." — Norton, Robert Edward—Norton (1991). ''Herder's Aesthetics and the European Enlightenment''. Cornell University Press, p. 60 (footnote).</ref> He is only now beginning to re-emerge as one of the most distinctive and original thinkers of the [[Scottish Enlightenment]].

* [[Charles_de_SecondatCharles de Secondat,_Baron_de_Montesquieu Baron de Montesquieu|Montesquieu]]

* [[Jean-Baptiste_Dubos|Jean-Baptiste DuBosDubos]]

* [[Winckelmann|Johann Joachim Winckelmann]]

* (1746). ''The Dangers of the Rebellion, and our Happy Deliverance, Considered, and a Suitable Consequent Behaviour Recommended''.

* (1753-551753–55, 1763). ''Memoirs of the Court of Augustus''.

* (1770). [https://archive.org/stream/archaeologiaormi01sociuoft#page/332/mode/2up Letter to J. Ames], ''Archæologia, or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity '', Vol. I, p. &nbsp;333.

{{reflistReflist|3}}

* Coltharp, Duane (1995). "History and the Primitive: Homer, Blackwell, and the Scottish Enlightenment," ''Eighteenth-Century Life'' '''19''', pp.&nbsp;57–69
* Foerster, Donald Madison (1947). [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015020627520;view=1up;seq=38 "Thomas Blackwell,."] inIn: ''Homer in English Criticism: The Historical Approach in the Eighteenth Century''. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. &nbsp;26–40.

* Guérard, Albert Léon (1935). "The Background of Literature: Race, Environment and Time,." inIn: ''Literature and Society''. Boston: Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Company.

* Macmillan, Duncan (2004). "French Art and the Scottish Enlightenment," in ''Scotland and France in the Enlightenment''. Bucknell University Press, pp. &nbsp;128–160.

* Reill, Peter Hanns (1975). "Structure of Development and Appreciation of the Unique,." inIn: ''The German Enlightenment and the Rise of Historicism''. University of California Press, pp. &nbsp;190–212.

* Whitney, Lois (1926). "Thomas Blackwell, a Disciple of Shaftesbury," ''Philological Quarterly'' '''5''', pp. 196–211&nbsp;196f211.

*{{DNB Cite|wstitle=Blackwell, Thomas (1701-1757)}}

[[Category:Homeric scholarshipscholars]]

[[Category:18th-century Scottish historians]]