Abstract
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, natural philosophers characteristically attempted to establish the ‘new philosophy’ by arguments against false natural philosophers as well as by their investigations. One rhetorical strategy was to accuse false philosophers of writing mere ‘poetry’. The effect of this strategy was not only to establish the new philosophy; it was also to begin to change the nature of poetry. This review indicates the central way in which natural philosophy forced poets from their ancient role of delighting readers and teaching them ethical behaviour into a kind of subjectivism that foreshadows the formation of modern literature.
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