Comparing Truth in The Education of Children, Paradise Lost and Hamlet

Nature of Truth in The Education of Children, Paradise Lost and Hamlet To some, right is something that is absolute and unchanging. To others, truth is volatile and inconstant. In the sixteenth and 17th century, the foundations of civilization itself had been shaken. Many of the ideas which were thought to be absolutely true had been plunged into the depths of uncertainty. The cosmological, geographical, and religious revolutions called into question the nature of truth itself. It is no wonder, then, that some of the great writers at the time included within their works a treatise on the ways in which truth is constructed. Because of the major ideological revolutions that shaped their world, Milton, Montaigne, and Shakespeare all used characters and representation devices to create their own ideas on the construction of truth. As a result of Miltons failed political aspirations, he believes that individuals do not construct truth, or decide for themselves what the truth is in stead, individuals receive the truth directly or indirectly from God. Conversely, deception comes from Satan. In Paradise Lost, Milton sets up this idea by forcing good to result only from obeisance to Gods will and evil to result whenever God is disobeyed. Dr. Evans argument that Miltons ultimate point in all this is to express a moral position that is very extreme, that no quality or action can be innately good or evil, is firmly rooted in this model. What determines the morality of anything we do is in whose benefit we do it. Since Raphael was sent from God, his warning is true and divine. Since Satan disobeyed God, his ideas are all false lies. Part of Miltons ideology may have come from his own vivification experiences. After the restorat... ...FCS, 2000. Brentano, Franz, The Origin of our Knowledge of Right and Wrong, trans. Cecil Hague (London Constable, 1902). Fish, Stanley Eugene. Surprised by Sin The Reader in Paradise Lost. New York St. Martins Press, 1967. Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Ed. Roy Flannagan. New York Macmillan, 1993. Patrides, C.A. Milton and The Christian Tradition. (Oxford Clarendon Press, 1966) Montaigne, Michel de. The finish Essays of Montaigne. Trans. DonaldM. Frame. Stanford Stanford UP, 1958. Moore, G. E., Review of The Origin of our Knowledge of Right and Wrong by Fritz Brentano, International Journal of Ethics, vol. 14 (1903), pp. 123-8. -----, Nature of Truth, Mind, vol. 16 ns, no. 62 (April 1907), pp. 229-35. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. 1600? Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York Signet Classic, 1998.