Addressing the age-old question of human perfectibility in Daniel Defoe's Mere Nature Delineated: or, a Body without a Soul

Vol.39,No.1(2013)

Mihaela Culea

https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2013-1-11

Stable URL (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/129159

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Abstract
This article discusses the concern with the improvement or perfectibility of human nature in eighteenth-century English society and the necessity of its encouragement considering the prevalence of human degeneration at different levels: intellectual, moral, social, political or cultural. After a brief presentation of the philosophical and literary background of the perfectibility debates, we look into Daniel Defoe's literary representation of human improvement and degeneration in his Mere Nature Delineated: or, a Body without a Soul (1726). Defoe's pamphlet had its roots in a real case of human imperfection or degradation, namely in Peter the Wild Boy's story, which gave him the opportunity to criticize his contemporaries' vices and failures.

Keywords:
feral child; noble savage; the fool; perfectibility; improvement; culture; nature; political satire

Pages:
199–209
References

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