HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE H27/97 12/31/97 SCHOPENHAUER/PHYSICS ======================================================== Fri Dec 05 07:57:04 1997 From: "K.E.Price" Subject: schopenhauer and or physics Does anybody have any information about Hardy in relation to a)Schopenhauer's philosophy b)physics I am especially interested in the verse. Kate Price EGP97KEP@sheffield.ac.uk ********** From: Martin Ray Subject: Re: schopenhauer and or physics> Date: Fri, 5 Dec 1997 14:41:28 +0000 (GMT) Dear Kate It's a large topic! One place to start might be Mary Ann Kelly, 'Hardy's Reading in Schopenhauer: _Tess of the d'Urbervilles_', _Colby Library Quarterly_, 18:3 (1982), 183-98. Or you could try R.P. Draper, '_The Mayor of Casterbridge_', _Critical Quarterly_, 25 (1983), 57-70. Sorry these are both about novels, but I hope they can get you started. Best wishes Martin Dr Martin Ray University of Aberdeen m.ray@abdn.ac.uk ********** Fri Dec 05 17:16:53 1997 From: Betty Cortus Subject: Re: schopenhauer and or physics Dear Kate, The poem "Drinking Song" approaches the subject of physics with a light-hearted iconoclasm. Hardy points out how hypotheses are formulated and exploded over time. Regards, Betty Cortus hardycor@mailhost2.csusm.edu ********** Date: Fri, 5 Dec 1997 20:37:42 -0500 (EST) From: donald ingram ulin Subject: Re: schopenhauer and or physics I don't have it with me, but I think Millgate (In *TH: A Life*)discusses this very briefly, pointing out that suggestions of Schopenhauer, at least during the novel-writing years, would have to have come to Hardy second-hand since he couldn't have read S. himself. (I don't remember the details, but I'm sure you could find it in the book.) (Of course that doesn't at all mean that there aren't very worthwhile comparisons to be made.) Donald Ulin Indiana University ********** Date: Sat, 6 Dec 1997 09:22:43 -0500 (EST) From: F Elaine Oswald Subject: Re: schopenhauer and or physics Hardy's "Drinking Song" salutes Einstein's "notion" of relativity. Elaine Oswald University of Tennessee Knoxville ********** Sat Dec 06 09:08:33 1997 From: Betty Cortus Subject: Re: schopenhauer and or physics A.O.J Cockshut's essay "Hardy's Philosophy" in _The Genius of Thomas Hardy_, ed. Margaret Drabble (Hutchinson, 1966) deals, in part, with Hardy's interpretation, and misinterpretation, of Schopenhauer's philosophy. There is also a very ancient dissertation (1911 no less) by Helen Garwood, U of Pennsylvania, entitled "Thomas Hardy: An illustration of the Philosophy of Schopenhauer." I seem to remember that it was developed later into a book. However, I don't know the details, nor have I seen it myself, so I don't know how useful it would be today. Certain poems, "Before Life and After," and "The A‘rolite," for example, which express a longing for "nescience" or the absence of thought and feeling, do tend to reflect S's profound rejection of life and attraction to death. A number of earlier critics attributed Hardy's alleged pessimism to S, as well as the shaping of the concept of the Immanent Will. As Martin Ray observes, the topic is a large one. Betty Cortus, hardycor@mailhost2.csusm.edu **********