The Novelist as a Moral Physician: Fielding, Hume and the Moral Sense School of Thought

• Thesis title in Czech: Romanopisec jakožto lékař morality: Fielding, Hume a filosofie morálního cítění
• Thesis title in English: The Novelist as a Moral Physician: Fielding, Hume and the Moral Sense School of Thought
• Key words: Henry Fielding|David Hume|morální teorie|morální filosofie|raný anglický román
• English key words: Henry Fielding|David Hume|Moral Philosophy|Moral Sense Theory|Early English novel|Comic novel
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2018/2019
• Thesis type: Bachelor's thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Supervisor: PhDr. Soňa Nováková, CSc.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 28.11.2018
• Date of assignment: 29.11.2018
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 03.12.2018
• Date and time of defence: 17.06.2019 09:00
• Date of electronic submission: 27.05.2019
• Date of proceeded defence: 17.06.2019
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: prof. James Hill, Ph.D.

Guidelines

Based on close reading of Henry Fielding's The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, the thesis is going to construct Fielding's moral philosophy, contextualize Fielding's thought and discuss relevant philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment. The work is going to open with a detailed account of Fielding's divine, philosophical and literary influences with a specific focus on Latitudinarianism and the Moral Sense school of thought. The core of the thesis is going to delve into Fielding's moral philosophy of the good heart as articulated in Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones, “An Essay on the Characters of Men,” The Covent-Garden Journal and further works of Fielding’s however Tom Jones is going to remain the chief source. In the latter part, David Hume's moral philosophy, as presented in A Treatise of Human Nature and then in An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, is going to be expounded and, finally, the homogeneity of Fielding's and Hume's moral thought is going to be asserted.

Among secondary sources, the thesis is going to draw on Bernard Harrison’s Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones: The Novelist as Moral Philosopher, which argues for Fielding’s status as a moral philosopher and details his technique; Martin C. Battestin’s comprehensive Henry Fielding: A Life is going to be a substantial source for Fielding’s thought and his development as a writer and as a social thinker; as well as Battestin’s The Moral Basis of Fielding’s Art: A Study of Joseph Andrews which is going to yield Fielding’s Latitudinarian influences in full. Markman Ellis’ The Politics of Sensibility: Race, Gender and Commerce in the Sentimental Novel is going to be probed for the subtleties of the concept of sensibility. As for David Hume, Rachel Cohon’s Hume’s Morality: Feeling and Fabrication is going to be mined for an up-to-date theoretical grappling with Hume’s moral thought. Relevant online pages of The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy are going to be studied in depth for insightful analyses of the philosophers in question.

References

Primary Literature
Hobbes, T. Leviathan (Oxford World’s Classics). New York: OUP, 1998.
Hume, D. A Treatise of Human Nature. New York: OUP, 2011.
Hume, D. An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals. Oxford: OUP, 2010.
Hutcheson, F. Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas and Beauty and Virtue; in two treatises. London: J.Darby; Dublin: W. and J. Smith, 1725.
Fielding, H. The Covent-Garden Journal 1752 v. 18. Ed. Gerard Edward Jensen. London: OUP, 1915.
Fielding, H. The Works of Henry Fielding, Esq. With an Essay on his Life and Genius by Arthur Murphy, Esq., IX. Red Lion Passage, Fleet Street: Nichols and Son, Printers, 1806.
Fielding, H. Joseph Andrews and Shamela (Oxford World’s Classics). London: OUP, 2008.
Fielding, H. Miscellanies. El. version. 1743.
Fielding, H. The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling. London: Penguin Books, 2012.
Mandeville, B. The Fable of the Bees: or, private vices, public benefits (1705-1725). Ed. Phillip Harth. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1989.
Shaftesbury. Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, 3 vol. Ed. Douglas den Uyl. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2001.
Smith, A. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. London: Penguin Classics, 2010.

Secondary Sources
Barrow, I. The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow. London: A.J. Valpy, 1830.
Battestin, M. Henry Fielding: A Life. New York: Routledge, 1989.
Battestin, M. The Moral Basis of Fielding’s Art: A Study of Joseph Andrews. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1975.
Ed. Battestin, M. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Tom Jones. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. & Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1968.
Boswell, J. Life of Johnson. Ed. G.B. Hill and L.F. Powell. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934.
Cohon, R. Hume’s Morality: Feeling and Fabrication. New York: OUP, 2010.
Coleridge, S.T. Specimens of the Table Talk of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. London: John Murray, 1836.
Coley, W. “The Background of Fielding’s Laughter.” ELH 26.2 (1959): 229-252.
Cuddon, J.A., rev. Preston, C.E. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. London: Penguin Books, 1999.
“Do Mirror Neurons Give us Empathy?” An Interview with V.S. Ramachandran by Jason Marsh, The Greater Good Science Center, University of California 2016: 3^rd Aug 2016.
Ellis, M. The Politics of Sensibility: Race, Gender and Commerce in the Sentimental Novel. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Eliot, G. Middlemarch. New York: Penguin, 2006.
Fiedler, L. Love and Death in the American Novel. New York: Dalkey Archive Press, 1998.
Gill, M.B. “Lord Shaftesbury [Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury].” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Ed. Edward N. Zalta (2011): . [accessed 20^th Jun 2016].
Gide, A. Travels in English Literature, trans. Dorothy Bussey, Verve I.2, 1938.
Harrison, B. Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones: The Novelist as Moral Philosopher. London: Sussex University Press, 1975.
Hawkins, J. The Works of Samuel Johnson. London: 2011.
Hoadly, B. Twenty Sermons. London: Nabu Press, 2011.
Hope, V.M. Virtue by Consensus: The Moral Philosophy of Hutcheson, Hume and Adam Smith. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.
Irwin, W.R. “Satire and Comedy in the Works of Henry Fielding.” ELH 13.3 (1946): 168-188.
Kelleher, P. “The Glorious Lust of Doing Good: Tom Jones, and the Virtues of Sexuality.” NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction 38.2/3. New York on Eighteenth-Century Fiction (2005): 165-192.
Literary Movements for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context and Criticism on Literary Movements (2009): < http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-3279300031/neoclassicism.html>. 2016 Encyclopedia.com [accessed 20^th Jun 2016].
More, H. Memoirs of the Life of Correspondence of Mrs. Hannah More. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1834.
Ed. Norton, D.F. The Cambridge Companion to Hume. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Penelhum, T. The Cambridge Companion to Hume. Ed. David F. Norton. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
“Picaresque Novel,” 2016 Encyclopædia Britannica.
Rogers, P. The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature. New York: OUP, 2001.
Russell, P. Rev. of Virtue by Consensus: The Moral Philosophy of Hutcheson, Hume and Adam Smith. By V.M. Hope, Ethics 101.4 (1991): 872-883.
“sensibility, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2016. Web. 22 June 2016.
“Sentimental Novel,” 2016 Encyclopædia Britannica.
Scott, W.R. Frances Hutcheson: His Life, Teaching and Position in the History of Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 1900).
Schmitter, A. “17^th and 18^th Century Theories of Emotions.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Winter 2010 edition, Oct 2010: . 19 Sept 2013.
Smith, A. “The Never to Be Forgotten Hutcheson: Excerpts from W.R. Scott.” Econ Journal Watch 8.1 (2011).
Taylor, A.E. David Hume and the Miraculous. Cambridge, 1927.
Tillotson, Dr. J. The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson, Lord Arcibishop of Canterbury, In Twelve Volumes. London, 1759.
Whitefield, G. The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A., Late of Pembroke-College, Oxford, And Chaplain to the Rt. Hon. The Council of Huntingdon. London, Printed for Edward and Charles Dilly, 1771.