William Myers – författare

First published in 1987. Milton and Free Will is an incisive, ambitious and comprehensive analysis and defence of the concept of free will, using Milton as an example and exemplar. Written with passion, and out of a lifelong engagement with the poetry of Milton and the philosophical and theological problems it encompasses, the book will illuminate both Milton studies and philosophical debate. The author engages with all the major currents of the free will debate, starting with Aristotle and Aquinas and considering arguments advanced by Hume and Kant as well as those of a number of modern philosophers including Polanyi, Kenny, Parfit, Plantinga, Swinburne, Dennett and Davidson. He pays particular attention to the Marxist formalism of Bakhtin, the Catholic phenomenology of Pope John Paul II and the evolutionism of Monod and Sober. He concludes with a rebuttal of the deconstructionism of Barthes, Derrida and Foucault.

He claims that all the major difficulties faced by defenders of free will can be overcome if a notion of willing implicit in the work of Milton is properly understood. Freedom as Milton represented and understood it, he suggests, is a condition of mind arising out of inter-personal awareness and not a property or consequence of practical reasoning. He finds supporting evidence for this view in the writings of Newman and in Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady, which he reads as a narrative structurally reversing Milton’s representation of the fall of Eve in Paradise Lost. The author systematically analyses and reanalyses key passages in his texts in the light of the many arguments for and against free will, seeking thereby to affirm the validity in principle, and the personal and political importance in practice, of the Christian humanist tradition of which he sees Milton, Newman and the Pope as important (if sometimes misleading) spokesmen.

First published in 1987. Milton and Free Will is an incisive, ambitious and comprehensive analysis and defence of the concept of free will, using Milton as an example and exemplar. Written with passion, and out of a lifelong engagement with the poetry of Milton and the philosophical and theological problems it encompasses, the book will illuminate both Milton studies and philosophical debate. The author engages with all the major currents of the free will debate, starting with Aristotle and Aquinas and considering arguments advanced by Hume and Kant as well as those of a number of modern philosophers including Polanyi, Kenny, Parfit, Plantinga, Swinburne, Dennett and Davidson. He pays particular attention to the Marxist formalism of Bakhtin, the Catholic phenomenology of Pope John Paul II and the evolutionism of Monod and Sober. He concludes with a rebuttal of the deconstructionism of Barthes, Derrida and Foucault.

He claims that all the major difficulties faced by defenders of free will can be overcome if a notion of willing implicit in the work of Milton is properly understood. Freedom as Milton represented and understood it, he suggests, is a condition of mind arising out of inter-personal awareness and not a property or consequence of practical reasoning. He finds supporting evidence for this view in the writings of Newman and in Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady, which he reads as a narrative structurally reversing Milton’s representation of the fall of Eve in Paradise Lost. The author systematically analyses and reanalyses key passages in his texts in the light of the many arguments for and against free will, seeking thereby to affirm the validity in principle, and the personal and political importance in practice, of the Christian humanist tradition of which he sees Milton, Newman and the Pope as important (if sometimes misleading) spokesmen.

Originally published in 1973, this is foremost a study of Dryden as a writer, but, the author maintains, his ideas cannot be separated from his art. Dryden’s concern with familiar 17th Century problems – the inadequacy of royalist theory in the face of power politics, the rise of philosophical materialism, make him almost as important to the historian as to the student of English Literature. William Myers’ overall picture of Dryden’s works ranges chronologically from the Restoration to the Glorious Revolution. Each play or poem is judged in its own right and as part of a strikingly honest literary life. Particular emphasis is given to the writings following The Hind and the Panther. Then at last Dryden was able to unite his total mastery of prose and verse both with a fully developed sense of what had happened to English society and with his own unyielding commitment to a traditional political philosophy and a traditional theology.

Originally published in 1973, this is foremost a study of Dryden as a writer, but, the author maintains, his ideas cannot be separated from his art. Dryden’s concern with familiar 17th Century problems – the inadequacy of royalist theory in the face of power politics, the rise of philosophical materialism, make him almost as important to the historian as to the student of English Literature. William Myers’ overall picture of Dryden’s works ranges chronologically from the Restoration to the Glorious Revolution. Each play or poem is judged in its own right and as part of a strikingly honest literary life. Particular emphasis is given to the writings following The Hind and the Panther. Then at last Dryden was able to unite his total mastery of prose and verse both with a fully developed sense of what had happened to English society and with his own unyielding commitment to a traditional political philosophy and a traditional theology.

The year 1688 is a turning point in English culture, and one from which can be dated numerous distinctively ‘modern’ notions of truth, property and political order. The texts assembled in this collection, originally published in 1986, focus on this intellectual adjustment from five related perspectives: from the traditions of social thought, philosophical thought, Anglicanism and royalism, latitudinarianism and the whig tradition, and the dissenting/radical/quietist milieu. The texts highlight not only the views that prevailed (Halifax and Locke), but those that failed (Dryden and Temple) and those that were reduced to marginality (Baxter). The substantial introduction by the editor brings out key themes such as the shifting notion of property and the related themes of inheritance, education and marriage, as well as the uneasy intellectual alliances of the period.

The year 1688 is a turning point in English culture, and one from which can be dated numerous distinctively ‘modern’ notions of truth, property and political order. The texts assembled in this collection, originally published in 1986, focus on this intellectual adjustment from five related perspectives: from the traditions of social thought, philosophical thought, Anglicanism and royalism, latitudinarianism and the whig tradition, and the dissenting/radical/quietist milieu. The texts highlight not only the views that prevailed (Halifax and Locke), but those that failed (Dryden and Temple) and those that were reduced to marginality (Baxter). The substantial introduction by the editor brings out key themes such as the shifting notion of property and the related themes of inheritance, education and marriage, as well as the uneasy intellectual alliances of the period.

George Eliot thought of herself as a teacher, as did her contemporaries. Their view that her writing was not simply influenced in a relatively haphazard way by her philosophical and scientific reading but was a deliberate and consistent attempt to synthesize in fiction an elaborate and coherent theoretical analysis of the human situation is studied in this book, originally published in 1984. Eliot’s Associationist philosophy, her Feuerbachian readings of religion, her ethic of Submission and her sense that Positivism can be transcended in art and vision are here subjected to a thorough Marxist, Nietzschean and psycho-analytical critique.

George Eliot thought of herself as a teacher, as did her contemporaries. Their view that her writing was not simply influenced in a relatively haphazard way by her philosophical and scientific reading but was a deliberate and consistent attempt to synthesize in fiction an elaborate and coherent theoretical analysis of the human situation is studied in this book, originally published in 1984. Eliot’s Associationist philosophy, her Feuerbachian readings of religion, her ethic of Submission and her sense that Positivism can be transcended in art and vision are here subjected to a thorough Marxist, Nietzschean and psycho-analytical critique.

Originally published in 1991, this elegantly written book offers new readers a useful approach to the work of Evelyn Waugh and will persuade those familiar with it to look at it afresh. This introduction to Waugh’s novels places them high in the catalogue of great fiction. It claims for them an intellectual coherence, subtlety and seriousness which Waugh’s disconcerting comic gifts and extravagant public and writing persona have tended to put in the shade. In addressing the nature of Waugh’s comic writing William Myers has borrowed George Bataille’s concept of Evil as a convenient way of dealing with the most troubling and exciting aspects of Waugh’s work: its sadism, its childish irresponsibility, its fascination with lunacy and death.

Originally published in 1991, this elegantly written book offers new readers a useful approach to the work of Evelyn Waugh and will persuade those familiar with it to look at it afresh. This introduction to Waugh’s novels places them high in the catalogue of great fiction. It claims for them an intellectual coherence, subtlety and seriousness which Waugh’s disconcerting comic gifts and extravagant public and writing persona have tended to put in the shade. In addressing the nature of Waugh’s comic writing William Myers has borrowed George Bataille’s concept of Evil as a convenient way of dealing with the most troubling and exciting aspects of Waugh’s work: its sadism, its childish irresponsibility, its fascination with lunacy and death.