18th-century character development
18th-century fiction
18th-century plot construction
19th-century fiction
A01=Kelly Swartz
aphorisms
Aphra Behn
Author_Kelly Swartz
Baconian science
British literature
Category=DS
Category=DSBD
Category=DSBF
Category=DSK
Category=PDA
Category=PDR
Category=QDHM
Category=QDTM
early modern authors
early novel
early science
empirical sciences
empiricism
English and French literature and philosophy
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_science
Francis Bacon
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
French literature
history of the novel
Jane Austen
Jonathan Swift
literary form
literature and philosophy
literature and science
micro-genres
microforms
natural philosophy
philosophy of science
rise of the novel
Samuel Richardson
Scientific Revolution
scientific writing
theories of mind
theory of the novel
Product details
- ISBN 9780813954134
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 03 Nov 2025
- Publisher: University of Virginia Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Correcting the misunderstood role of maxims at the intersection of early science and literature
Eighteenth-century novels are full of maxims - pithy statements of received wisdom such as 'necessity is the mother of invention' or 'neither a borrower nor a lender be.' Maxims are ancient rhetorical forms, celebrated by no less an influential figure than Aristotle as powerful tools of persuasion. Critics have generally explained away their ubiquitous presence in eighteenth-century novels as a vestige of a premodern form. As Kelly Swartz explains, however, their presence illustrates an important yet often overlooked aspect of the novel's relationship with the early empirical sciences.
Applying insights from Francis Bacon's account of aphorizing as a method of scientific writing to works by Aphra Behn, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Richardson, and Jane Austen, Swartz shows how maxims functioned in a critical role that she calls 'unknowing.' Such expressions, she argues, represented the not yet known as a way to inspire in readers a desire for ongoing, collective inquiry. Maxims also allowed these authors to invent unknowing fictional minds, at once attractive and vexing, ranging from the incoherent and banal to the unintelligibly rich. Maxims and the Mind thus offers new insight into the nature of the relationship between science and the early novel, emphasizing their shared interest in the representation of knowledge still awaiting discovery.
Eighteenth-century novels are full of maxims - pithy statements of received wisdom such as 'necessity is the mother of invention' or 'neither a borrower nor a lender be.' Maxims are ancient rhetorical forms, celebrated by no less an influential figure than Aristotle as powerful tools of persuasion. Critics have generally explained away their ubiquitous presence in eighteenth-century novels as a vestige of a premodern form. As Kelly Swartz explains, however, their presence illustrates an important yet often overlooked aspect of the novel's relationship with the early empirical sciences.
Applying insights from Francis Bacon's account of aphorizing as a method of scientific writing to works by Aphra Behn, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Richardson, and Jane Austen, Swartz shows how maxims functioned in a critical role that she calls 'unknowing.' Such expressions, she argues, represented the not yet known as a way to inspire in readers a desire for ongoing, collective inquiry. Maxims also allowed these authors to invent unknowing fictional minds, at once attractive and vexing, ranging from the incoherent and banal to the unintelligibly rich. Maxims and the Mind thus offers new insight into the nature of the relationship between science and the early novel, emphasizing their shared interest in the representation of knowledge still awaiting discovery.
Kelly Swartz is Associate Professor of English at Adelphi University.
