自然超自然主義 卡萊爾《衣服哲學》裡的物質與科學

Abstract

In the past, studies concerning Thomas Carlyle's Sartor Resartus are concentrated on the issues of transcendentalism and romanticism. The subjects of science and matter, however, are overlooked or denied for they are ”others” to contradict the subjects of spirit and transcendence. Via an intertextual reading of Sartor Resartus with its contemporary history and texts, this essay will examine the significance of ”science” and ”matter” as well as ”natural supernaturalism” in Sartor Resartus. To juxtapose the natural theology in Carlyle's age, his personal experiences, as well as his Natural Supernaturalism intertextually, this study will expose new dimensions of Carlyle's binary structures that are different from the traditional science/religion and matter/spirit divides. The new binary structure exposed will be: the wise vs. the foolish, the inner eye vs. the bodily eye, the invisible vs. the visible, pure reason vs. vulgar logic, the objective world vs. the subjective world, the mechanic calculation vs. the dynamic fantasy, and nature vs. the supernatural. Under the new structure of the binaries, this study will show that Carlyle never emphasizes the interior but ignores the exterior, and respects the spiritual but criticizes the scientific. Instead, the wise is more than an absolute transcendentalist and spiritualist, but a philosopher who ”stations himself in the middle” between matter (the exterior) and spirit (the interior) as well as nature and the supernatural.