A Sage’s Science: Matthew Arnold and the Uses of Imprecision

Abstract

Claims Arnold associated his critical method with the disinterestedness that characterizes the scientific spirit, yet at crucial points in many texts, he deliberately evades the kind of precision science seeks. Despite claims by George Levine regarding Arnold’s vacillation, posits that Arnold’s view of the relationship between scientific and poetic consciousness is similar to that of Kant and most Romantic and Victorian poets. Arnold recognizes the epistemological claims of science, but consistently gives priority to the ontological reality of subjective experience. Claims his rhetorical art in “Literature and Science” illustrates that his ultimate critical appeal is to the experience of his readers; he uses a strategy of “imprecision” to prompt their responses.