Literature and Limits on Human Intelligence
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In three works that contemplate the question of the necessity of limits on human intelligence, the issue revolves around the notion of humanity exceeding its limits and, thereby, offending or challenging the gods. The question asked by Aeschylus in Prometheus Bound, by Mary Shelley in Frankenstein, and by Daniel Defoe in Robinson Crusoe is whether there is some inherent limit on human ability--a point beyond which humanity should not go. Does human technology, the various products of human intelligence, reach a point at which it is beyond the ability of mere mortals to control it? Though the question was phrased in very different ways, all three authors agreed that there was a limit to human intelligence and that such a limit was a necessity. Why it is a necessity was, however, answered quite differently by the three writers. In Aeschylus' play the conflict is over whether Prometheus was right to give humanity the ability to act in ways that Zeus believed should be reserved to the gods. (The actual point in question in this play, which was one of a trilogy about Prometheus' dilemma, was Zeus' demand that Prometheus reveal a secret he possessed about a limit on Zeus' power.) While Prometheus is judged to have acted rightly in giving humanity its gifts, the manner in which he acted, his rebelliousness, is seen as excessive. In Shelley's novel, which is subtitled "The Modern Prometheus," the story revolves around fantastic circumstances in which a human being ventures
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given by Prometheus, was seen as a good of the highest order.
The results of going too far with these gifts, in a fashion that Aeschylus does not imagine, are shown in Frankenstein. At this point in humanity's history the gifts of Prometheus had been developed to a fairly high level. But for Frankenstein this simply was not enough. What had emerged from the powers that Prometheus granted to humanity was the desire to push this progress even farther. Frankenstein describes the state of human progress by picking up, perhaps deliberately, from the point where Prometheus' speech about his gifts to humanity leaves off. The sail boats and mining technology were not enough. As Frankenstein says, "the untaught peasant beheld the elements around him, and was acquainted with their practical uses [but] the most learned philosopher knew little more" (41). The secrets of nature had only been partially unveiled and, while humanity had made great progress, this was only made at the lowest levels and the causes were still unknown to them.
Frankenstein was initially misled by the pseudoscience of Paracelsus and others and, once he realized his mistake and rectified it, he remained infected by the over-ambitious aims of the pseudophilos
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Approximate Word count = 2608
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)
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