Assignment #4

-What issues or ideas stuck with you from Wednesday’s class?

The idea that stuck with from Wednesday’s class was how Pope’s philosophy towards life, he thought that man shouldn’t go beyond what was given to him. He wanted people to understand that whatever has been created is Gods plan so we must know that it’s perfect and that man can be ignorant thinking otherwise, or to be thinking that man can be superior to God.

-What did you NOT understand?

I didn’t understand the words and how it was written. I had a really hard time while reading the first time so I couldn’t decipher the meaning to understand the overall text.

– How did class go for you?  What factors contributed to this?

Class went great for me as the professor and my fellow students explained each stanza very clearly which helped me understand the overall text. I think each student being assigned each stanza made it very easier for us to focus on one thing and not overwhelm us, so focusing on specific lines and specific stanza contributed to understand thing.

-How is Pope’s poem connected to the Scientific Revolution and/or the Enlightenment?

Pope’s poem says that man shouldn’t be arrogant to think that the earth and the world was made for him. He believed that man should stay on his lane and be content with what was given to him. However, the Scientific Revolution or the Enlightenment  played a huge role in doing the opposite, it was meant for exploration and to understand more of what man doesn’t know. Pope’s ideology was that if we don’t know somethings such as solar system and microscopic vision then God didn’t want us to know. Microscopes were invented then, and he argued that if God wanted us to see little things then we would have smaller eyes. If God wanted us to know that there were solar systems then we would have large eyes and we didn’t need to create telescopes.

-What are your ideas about scientific exploration? Are there any boundaries science shouldn’t cross?

I believe that human beings are natural explorers which is why we have been given an intellect and curiosity to do that. My ideas about scientific exploration is that it gives us an opportunity to learn beyond our imagination and to further discover the unknown. Some boundaries that science shouldn’t cross is creating technologies which would make humans depend fully on it and forgetting the simplicity of our planet.

-What is one line, image, or idea that has made an impression on you from “An Essay on Man”?  What about it resonates with you?

One line that has made an impression on me from “An Essay on Man” is, “Whose body Nature is, and God the soul” This line perfectly delivers the whole message of what Pope was saying in this poem. He believes that man and all the other creatures are part of a hierarchy in the nature and that we are all interdependent with each other. If we are body then God is the soul, without soul nothing would exist and it would all be meaningless.