About the Book
Coleridge and Contemplation is a multi-disciplinary volume on Samuel Taylor Coleridge, founding poet of British Romanticism, critic, and author of philosophical, political, and theological works. In his philosophical writings, Coleridge developed his thinking about the symbolizing imagination, a precursor to contemplation, into a theory of contemplation itself, which for him occurs in its purest form as a manifestation of 'Reason'. Coleridge is a
particularly challenging figure because he was a thinker in process, and something of an omnimath, a Renaissance man of the Romantic era. The dynamic quality of his thinking, the 'dark fluxion' pursued but ultimately
'unfixable by thought', and his extensive range of interests make a philosophical yet also multi-disciplinary approach to Coleridge essential.
This book is the first collection to feature philosophers and intellectual historians writing on Coleridge's philosophy. This volume opens up a neglected aspect of the work of Britain's greatest philosopher-poet -- his analysis of contemplation, which he considered the highest of human mental powers. Philosophers including Roger
Scruton, David E. Cooper, Michael McGhee, Andy Hamilton, and Peter Cheyne contribute original essays on the philosophical, literary, and political implications of Coleridge's views. The volume is
edited and introduced by Peter Cheyne, and Baroness Mary Warnock contributes a foreword.
The chapters by philosophers are supported by new developments in philosophically minded criticism from leading Coleridge scholars in English departments, including Jim Mays, Kathleen Wheeler, and James Engell. They approach Coleridge as an energetic yet contemplative thinker concerned with the intuition of ideas and the processes of cultivation in self and society. Other chapters,
from intellectual historians and theologians, including Douglas Hedley clarify the historical background, and 'religious musings', of Coleridge's thought regarding contemplation.
Table of Contents:
Baroness Mary Warnock: Foreword Peter Cheyne: Introduction Part I: Poetics and Aesthetics 1: J. C. C. Mays: Contemplation in Coleridge's Poetry 2: David E. Cooper: Meditation on the Move: Walking, Nature, Mystery 3: James Kirwan: Coleridge on Beauty: Aesthetic Contemplation as Revelation 4: Kathleen Wheeler: Coleridge, Dewey, and the Art of Contemplation 5: Roger Scruton: Imagination and Truth: Reflections after Coleridge Part II: Worldviews: Science, Ethics, and Politics 6: David Knight: Coleridge and Chemical Philosophy 7: Philip Aherne: The 'way of seeking': The Coleridgean Development of Utilitarianism in Cambridge 8: Kaz Oishi: Contemplation and Philanthropy: Coleridge, Owen, and the 'Well-Being of Nations' 9: Andy Hamilton: Coleridge, Mill, and Conservatism: Contemplation of an Idea Part III: Metaphysics 10: Peter Cheyne: Coleridge's 'Order of the Mental Powers' and the Energic-Energetic Distinction 11: Dillon Struwig: Coleridge's Two-Levels Theory of Metaphysical Knowledge and the Order of the Mental Powers in the Logic 12: Cristina Flores: Contemplant Spirits': Ralph Cudworth and Contemplation in S. T. Coleridge 13: Douglas Hedley: S. T. Coleridge's Contemplative Imagination 14: James Engell: Coleridge and Contemplation: The Act Part IV: Philosophy of Religion 15: Michael McGhee: The Soul steady and collected: A Buddhist response to Coleridge 16: Noriko Naohara: The Will to Faith: Coleridge's Contemplative Theology 17: Suzanne E. Webster: Coleridge, Contemplation, and the 'triple Ichheit' 18: J. Gerald Janzen: Notebook 55 as Contemplative Coda to Coleridge's Work and Life
About the Author :
Peter Cheyne is Associate Professor at Shimane University, where he teaches Philosophy and Literature. He divides his time between Shimane and his native Durham, where he is Visiting Fellow at Durham University Philosophy Department. He has published 'A Coleridgean Account of Meditative Experience' (Journal of Philosophy of Life, Jan. 2013); 'The Art Of Poetic Life-Writing' (Coleridge Bulletin, Winter 2014); 'Encoded and Embodied Rhythm', (eds Hamilton &
Paddington, Philosophy of Rhythm, OUP, 2017).
Review :
Those with a serious interest in Coleridgean thought will welcome this new volume from Oxford University Press, ably edited by Peter Cheyne. [...] All in all, the present volume suggests that serious interest in Coleridge's philosophy is alive and well.
...Coleridge and Contemplation is a most fascinating contribution to this work still in process...[the book] wonderfully succeeds in highlighting how this single term [contemplation] can inspire such a great plethora of powerful arguments that prove that Coleridge's ideas still continue to live with us.
an intellectually compelling, beautifully planned and edited collection of essays [...] Cheyne, as a scholar of both literature and philosophy, is well placed to establish Coleridge's proper place in the history of the latter, and he has done incredibly well getting together so many distinguished scholars, from different backgrounds, to reflect on a central concept in Coleridge's thought.
an excellent contribution to Romantic studies [...] As interest in the growing interdisciplinary fields of attention studies ... continues to grow, Coleridge and Contemplation positions itself as a rousing and timely resource, enhancing ongoing debates among Romanticists and Coleridgeans
will be of great interest to students of Coleridge and of philosophy. At a time when 'interdisciplinary' threatens to become an empty buzzword, it is a true pleasure to encounter a book like Coleridge and Contemplation, in which scholars of many disciplines collaborate to produce a rich range of responses to a rich and wide-ranging writer.
an indispensable addition to any Coleridge library
a remarkable collection, a broad, far-reaching volume. [...] The most significant contribution... lies not just in how the book reveals so many profound influences on the evolution and development of Coleridge's far-ranging thought but as well on how those influences shaped, informed, and inspired the vitality of his prodigious contributions to both poetry and philosophy. That it opens and advances such challenging new dimensions to Coleridgean scholarship is an extraordinary and important accomplishment.
This volume brings together literary critics and philosophers to generate new accounts of Coleridge's mature philosophical thinking. The essays treat not only such issues as the contemplative experience of poetry, the religious dimension of aesthetic experience, the truth directed character of imagination, and meditation while walking in nature, but also Coleridge's thought in relation to Platonism, John Dewey, utilitarianism, philanthropy, physiology, and theology.
Coleridge and Contemplation, brilliantly edited by Peter Cheyne, with a Foreword by Baroness Mary Warnock, is a thorough and comprehensive collection of essays by renowned scholars from different research backgrounds who put together their varied expertise to scrutinise Coleridge's philosophical, poetic, scientific and metaphysical thoughts [...] I am sure that this excellent book, bound to become a classic in Coleridge's scholarship and criticism, will continue to inspire meditations and contemplations on his work for a long time.
[Coleridge and Contemplation] offers a remarkable insight into a poetic and contemplative mind that is central to the development of English thought in many different ways. This is a book to be read carefully and treasured. It is one of the best books on Coleridge in many years.
Peter Cheyne has done an excellent job in editing this volume, and the range and calibre of his contributors is very impressive ... for the serious student of Coleridge, interested in what he has to say to our age as well as his own, this will be rich and rewarding.
Coleridge and Contemplation is an exciting addition to Coleridge scholarship to say the least, not only demonstrating that Coleridge stands as a serious philosophical voice in his historical setting but also that his thought continues to open new and provocative conceptual paths today.
