I wish to examine the dialogue between the literature and philosophy of the Restoration era.  This particular time period is significant to both disciplines: some of the most interesting writers are from this time period (i.e. Swift (BADASS), Pope, Dryden, etc.), and also some of the most prominent figures in philosophy are from this "Modern" epoch (i.e. Locke, Berkeley, Hume).  However, precisely because there are a wide array of writers and thinkers during this time period, I would like to narrow my research between four prominent figures (two writers and two thinkers): Jonathan Swift; Alexander Pope; John Locke; David Hume.  I will not proceed with my research to defend the notion that these four figures are the representatives of this era, but I would like to focus my research towards what precisely is being emphasized in their writing.  

This particular research project will perhaps blur the lines between creative and academic domains of writing.  The reason for this is that in order to grasp the multiplicity of perspectives evident in these four figures and subsequently within the four figures, I will need academic rigor and systemazation for nuanced meaning and understanding, but will also need creative angles and approaches in order to expose the dialogue between the literature and philosophy.  I hope to see in the final project perhaps not a balance per se between the creative and academic domains, but rather a fluidity between the two.

Below I have found a few preliminary sources of interest:

Alexander Pope and the Nature of Language

Swift On Liberty

Houyhnhnm Est Animal Rationale

Locke and the Scriblerians

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Although I have been M.I.A. for some time due to personal reasons and unexpected circumstances, I have continued to gather research and make more vivid my project.  I am used to academic writing, and to better serve my interests in this time period I have chosen the academic domain as my choice of presentation.  I have found that while there is much written about each figure I have chosen ( in terms of their own religious beliefs/philosophical positions, there is scarce secondary material on comparisons between each figure in the fasion that I have set up my project.  To combat this, I will rely on my own explicatory analysis as well as my own formation of the relationship governing the literature and philosophy of the Restoration epoch.  

Swift and Locke

In the above link to the book Jonathan Swift and the Vested Word, Deborah Baker Wyrick seeks to derive the influence of Swift from Locke--particularly Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding.  A claim being made in the book is that "the final product of language is not communication of an idea but reconstitution of a material thing, the sensory evidence of which, according to Locke, would give rise to the "Notion" in the first place" (6).  This book is a strong resource obstensibly in the sense that it connects both Swift and Locke, but it also links works of Swift to Locke's philosophical position of empericism.  

The Rape of the Text

In this link, Harry M. Solomon draws multiple connections and criticism of Pope, Locke, and Hume.  The emphasis on this book is the notion of skepticism and its prevalence in the Restoration period.  What is significant about this book is that it has many bibliographical sources of which I can weave into my projectl; however, this is a careful balancing act in the sense that many other philosophers are also being drawn into this books.  In addition, the central focus of this book Pope's Essay On Man.  I do not want to "multiply entitities beyond necessity" as Ockham puts it, because then my project loses its focus, and the paper becomes a random grouping of vague relations. 

I belive that I have many resources (including bibliographies of the above articles and books as reference points) that are not only parallel to my project, but also provide support for my own ideas and connections.  I have written about five pages of the paper and so far I bleieve I have remained focused and precise.