Edgar Allan Poe, Eureka, and Scientific Imagination

David N. Stamos

Description

Silver Winner, 2017 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards in the Philosophy category

In 1848, almost a year and a half before Edgar Allan Poe died at the age of forty, his book Eureka was published. In it, he weaved together his scientific speculations about the universe with his own literary theory, theology, and philosophy of science. Although Poe himself considered it to be his magnum opus, Eureka has mostly been overlooked or underappreciated, sometimes even to the point of being thought an elaborate hoax. Remarkably, however, in Eureka Poe anticipated at least nine major theories and developments in twentieth-century science, including the Big Bang theory, multiverse theory, and the solution to Olbers' paradox. In this book—the first devoted specifically to Poe's science side—David N. Stamos, a philosopher of science, combines scientific background with analysis of Poe's life and work to highlight the creative and scientific achievements of this text. He examines Poe's literary theory, theology, and intellectual development, and then compares Poe's understanding of science with that of scientists and philosophers from his own time to the present. Next, Stamos pieces together and clarifies Poe's theory of scientific imagination, which he then attempts to update and defend by providing numerous case studies of eureka moments in modern science and by seeking insights from comparative biography and psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, and evolution.
Acknowledgments
Sources

1. Prologue
Entrée
Summaries
Discovering Poe
Poe’s House of Usher
Poe’s Poiesis

2. Poe’s Literary Theory
Entrée
The Problem
Pleasure, Plot, and Unity of Effect
Eureka as a “Prose Poem”

3. Poe’s Theology
Entrée
Poe’s Theology and the Problem of Evil
Artistic Sensitivity and Poe’s View of the World
The Argument from Beauty
The Problem of Pain
The Problem of Death
Beauty and Hope

4. Poe’s Intellectual Background
Entrée
Poe’s Formal Education
“Pinakidia”
The Conchologist’s First Book
“A on Science and Art”
The Bridgewater Treatises
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
Poe’s Scientific Sources for Eureka
Poe’s Criteria of Truth
Was Eureka a Hoax?

5. The Scientific Anticipations of Eureka
Entrée
Rejection of Axioms as Intuitively True
Big Bang Cosmogony
Fine-Tuning of the Laws of Nature
Non-Existence of Laws of Nature Before the Big Bang
Olbers’ Paradox
Multiverse Theory
Space–Time Interdependence
Matter–Energy Equivalence
No Material Ether

6. Imagination in Philosophy and History of Science
Entrée
Philosophy of Science in Poe’s Time
Logical Positivism
Logical Empiricism
Karl Popper
Thomas Kuhn
The New Experimentalism
The Disunity of Science Movement
Inference to the Best Explanation
Epistemic Virtues and Values
Evolutionary Epistemology
Contextualist History of Science
Charles Darwin
Albert Einstein
Mutation and Imagination, an Analogy

7. Poe’s Theory of Scientific Imagination
Entrée
Double Consciousness
Mesmeric Consciousness
Lunatics, Lovers, and Poets
Kepler, Champollion, and Humboldt
Leibniz, Newton, and Laplace
Poe’s “Double Dupin”
Against Deduction and Induction
The Poetic Intellect

8. Epilogue
Entrée
Unconscious Scientific Creativity
Comparative Biography and Psychology
Cognitive Science
Neuroscience
Evolution
Adieu

Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Esthétique et philosophie de l'art
• USA
• United States of America
• Philosophy
• Philosophy of science
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 28 février 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438463926
• Langue: English

Extrait

Edgar Allan Poe, Eureka, and Scientific Imagination
Edgar Allan Poe, Eureka, and Scientific Imagination
DAVID N. STAMOS
Mathew Brady photograph of Poe, seated, ca. 1845/1848.
Courtesy of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2017 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Jenn M. Bennett
Marketing, Kate R. Seburyamo
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Stamos, David N., author.
Title: Edgar Allan Poe, Eureka, and scientific imagination / David N. Stamos.
Description: Albany, NY : State University of New York Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016031441 (print) | LCCN 2016049033 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438463919 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438463926 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849—Knowledge—Science. | Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849—Religion. | Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849. Eureka. | Imagination. | Creative ability. | Science—Philosophy.
Classification: LCC PS2642.S3 S73 2017 (print) | LCC PS2642.S3 (ebook) | DDC 818/.309—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016031441
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To John Cusack, and the makers of The Raven , for their wonderfully imaginative tribute to Poe, to the man and his powers of ratiocination, dedicated here is this—octavo, for evermore.
Contents

Acknowledgments
Sources
Chapter 1. Prologue
Entrée
Chapter Summaries
Discovering Poe
Poe’s House of Usher
Poe’s Poiesis
Chapter 2. Poe’s Literary Theory
Entrée
The Problem
Pleasure, Plot, and Unity of Effect
Eureka as a “Prose Poem”
Chapter 3. Poe’s Theology
Entrée
Poe’s Theology and the Problem of Evil
Artistic Sensitivity and Poe’s View of the World
The Argument from Beauty
The Problem of Pain
The Problem of Death
Beauty and Hope
Chapter 4. Poe’s Intellectual Background
Entrée
Poe’s Formal Education
“Pinakidia”
The Conchologist’s First Book
“A Chapter on Science and Art”
The Bridgewater Treatises
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
Poe’s Scientific Sources for Eureka
Poe’s Criteria of Truth
Was Eureka a Hoax?
Chapter 5. The Scientific Anticipations of Eureka
Entrée
Rejection of Axioms as Intuitively True
Big Bang Cosmogony
Fine-Tuning of the Laws of Nature
Non-Existence of Laws of Nature Before the Big Bang
Olbers’ Paradox
Multiverse Theory
Space–Time Interdependence
Matter–Energy Equivalence
No Material Ether
Chapter 6. Imagination in Philosophy and History of Science
Entrée
Philosophy of Science in Poe’s Time
Logical Positivism
Logical Empiricism
Karl Popper
Thomas Kuhn
The New Experimentalism
The Disunity of Science Movement
Inference to the Best Explanation
Epistemic Virtues and Values
Evolutionary Epistemology
Contextualist History of Science
Charles Darwin
Albert Einstein
Mutation and Imagination, an Analogy
Chapter 7. Poe’s Theory of Scientific Imagination
Entrée
Double Consciousness
Mesmeric Consciousness
Lunatics, Lovers, and Poets
Kepler, Champollion, and Humboldt
Leibniz, Newton, and Laplace
Poe’s “Double Dupin”
Against Deduction and Induction
The Poetic Intellect
Chapter 8. Epilogue
Entrée
Unconscious Scientific Creativity
Comparative Biography and Psychology
Cognitive Science
Neuroscience
Evolution
Adieu
Index
Acknowledgments

I am deeply indebted to my editor at SUNY Press, Andrew Kenyon, and the two scholars he commissioned as anonymous reviewers, to the production editor, Jenn Bennett, and the production team, to the copy editor, John Wentworth, and to the artist. A debt of thanks is also due to a select group of friends and acquaintances, (some of them former students,) either for their inspiration, or for guiding me toward certain readings, or for feedback on certain chapters or parts thereof, namely, Robert H. Haynes, Bernard Lightman, Jason Buccheri, Mauro Buccheri, Julia Tourianski, David Livingstone Smith, Graham McCreath, George Perry, Brandon Fenton, Bobbak Makooie, Andrew Robinson, Karina Chornenka, Neven Sesardic, Susan Chen, Vincenzo Domanico, Kassandra Sharma, Neda Maki, and last but not least, Matthew H. Kelley, Suzanne Underwood Rhodes, William E. Engel, and the other scholars I had the pleasure to meet and converse with at the Fourth International Edgar Allan Poe Conference held in Manhattan at the end of February 2015, where I gave my talk on Poe’s “double Dupin.”
Sources

F or references to and quotations from Poe’s writings, I usually refer to the collections listed below rather than the original sources of publication. The year following a work by Poe, for example “The Raven” (1845), indicates the year of its earliest publication or the year of composition if it was unpublished. Pages following a work refer to the following collections: P T Patrick F. Quinn, ed. (1984). Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales . New York: Library of America. E R G.R. Thompson, ed. (1984). Edgar Allan Poe: Essays and Reviews . New York: Library of America. Brevities Burton R. Pollin, ed. (1985). The Brevities: Pinakidia, Marginalia, Fifty Suggestions, and Other Works . New York: Gordian Press. Letters John Ward Ostrom, Burton R. Pollin, and Jeffrey A. Savoye, eds. (2008). The Collected Letters of Edgar Allan Poe . 3rd ed. New York: Gordian Press.
The following are anthologies I use with varying frequency: Recognition Eric W. Carlson, ed. (1966). The Recognition of Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Criticism Since 1829 . Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Critical Heritage I.M. Walker, ed. (1986). Edgar Allan Poe: The Critical Heritage . New York: Routledge Kegan Paul. This is a useful collection consisting primarily of contemporary reviews of Poe’s work and obituaries. Companion Kevin J. Hayes, ed. (2002). The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. A collection of modern essays in the prestigious Cambridge Companion series, but partly anti-Poe. Context Kevin J. Hayes, ed. (2013). Edgar Allan Poe in Context . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. A collection rich in background information on the many contexts in which Poe was embedded.
In terms of biographies of Poe, I make use of the following: Weiss Susan Archer Weiss (1907). The Home Life of Poe . New York: Broadway Publishing. As Susan Talley, she knew Poe during the last three months of his life and also many of those who knew Poe. Quinn Arthur Hobson Quinn (1941). Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography . New York: D. Appleton-Century Company. In spite of being dated, many Poe scholars still consider this the definitive biography of Poe. Poe Log Dwight Thomas and David K. Jackson (1987). The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe 1809–1849 . Boston: G.K. Hall Co. This book is of inestimable value for tracing the chronology of Poe’s life on a daily basis. Silverman Kenneth Silverman (1991). Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Neverending Remembrance . New York: HarperCollins. Hutchisson James M. Hutchisson (2005). Poe . Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Ackroyd Peter Ackroyd (2008). Poe: A Life Cut Short . London: Chatto Windus.
Aside from biographies and critical collections, there are many useful monographs and commentaries on aspects of Poe’s writings. The ones I make the most use of are the following: Hoffman Daniel Hoffman (1972). Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe . New York: Paragon House. This is a classic, for better and for worse. Peeples Scott Peeples (2004). The Afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe . Rochester, NY: Camden House. Eureka Stuart Levine and Susan F. Levine, eds. (2004). Edgar Allan Poe: Eureka . Champaign: University of Illinois Press. This is an annotated text of Poe’s Eureka that I use mainly for its annotations. Critical Theory Stuart Levine and Susan F. Levine, eds. (2009). Edgar Allan Poe: Critical Theory, The Major Documents . Champaign: University of Illinois Press. Zimmerman Brett Zimmerman (2005). Edgar Allan Poe: Rhetoric and Style . Montreal Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press. Fisher Benjamin F. Fisher (2008). The Cambridge Introduction to Edgar Allan Poe . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Evermore Harry Lee Poe (2012). Evermore: Edgar Allan Poe and the Mystery of the Universe . Waco, TX: Baylor University Press. The author of this book is a professional theologian and a living relative of Edgar Poe’s family. This book made a powerful impression on me and is the catalyst of the volume before you. McGann Jerome McGann (2014). The Poet Edgar Allan Poe: Alien Angel . Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
CHAPTER 1

Prologue
To the few who love me and whom I love …
—Edgar Allan Poe 1
Entrée
T his is a book about the nature of scientific imagination, but first and foremost it is a book about Edgar Allan Poe, an American icon, “quite possibly America’s most famous literary figure.” 2 It is not a book about all of Poe, of course, given the title of the book alone, but about a side of Poe, his science side, a side that has usually been treated either superficially or ignored altogether in Poe studies. Ironically, that side of Poe involves a topic that has usually been treated the very same way in professional philosophy and history of science. The said topic, central to Poe in his lonesome latter years, is none other than scientific imagination itself, the nature of which Poe, in those latter years, applied to the grandest topic of all: the meaning of the