{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/87575"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/87575","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"\"Lord Kames's \"\"Elements of Criticism\"\" in Context\"","abstract":"I argue that Elements of Criticism is best understood as advocating a method of critical practice that addresses contemporary social, political, and nationalistic circumstances. It uses principles of human nature not simply as an intellectual response to the new philosophy, but rather for pedagogical purposes in the interests of social mobility. The first part of the dissertation focuses on Elements itself and the second part on Kames's other major works. In the first part, I provide a detailed summary of Elements in order to highlight its principles of organization and critical method, and to introduce some of the leading features of its context. Kames's Shakespeare criticism serves as a case study to more fully detail these intellectual, social, political, and nationalistic features. In the second part, I show that Kames also uses principles of human nature for pedagogical purposes in the interests of social mobility throughout his career and in different subject matters: law and history. Kames's legal career and legal works show how principles of human nature helped him to gain professional notice as well as to appeal to readers of polite taste. I more fully detail this latter audience---middling readers---with reference to Kames's Sketches of the History of Man. In this work, too, we see that Kames uses principles of human nature to organize a vast amount of detail selected in part for the purposes of informing and entertaining middling readers. The continuity of the circumstances Elements addressed---such as interests in displaying taste and in science---contributed to the use of Elements as a rhetoric textbook through the nineteenth century. The changes in circumstances---such as an interest in scientific progress, increasingly egalitarian views of education, and world war---contributed to its later dismissal.","abstract_html":"I argue that Elements of Criticism is best understood as advocating a method of critical practice that addresses contemporary social, political, and nationalistic circumstances. It uses principles of human nature not simply as an intellectual response to the new philosophy, but rather for pedagogical purposes in the interests of social mobility. The first part of the dissertation focuses on Elements itself and the second part on Kames's other major works. In the first part, I provide a detailed summary of Elements in order to highlight its principles of organization and critical method, and to introduce some of the leading features of its context. Kames's Shakespeare criticism serves as a case study to more fully detail these intellectual, social, political, and nationalistic features. In the second part, I show that Kames also uses principles of human nature for pedagogical purposes in the interests of social mobility throughout his career and in different subject matters: law and history. Kames's legal career and legal works show how principles of human nature helped him to gain professional notice as well as to appeal to readers of polite taste. I more fully detail this latter audience---middling readers---with reference to Kames's Sketches of the History of Man. In this work, too, we see that Kames uses principles of human nature to organize a vast amount of detail selected in part for the purposes of informing and entertaining middling readers. The continuity of the circumstances Elements addressed---such as interests in displaying taste and in science---contributed to the use of Elements as a rhetoric textbook through the nineteenth century. The changes in circumstances---such as an interest in scientific progress, increasingly egalitarian views of education, and world war---contributed to its later dismissal.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Manolescu, Beth Innocenti"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Speech Communication","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Conley, Thomas M."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2015,"date_issued":"2015-09-28T16:05:12Z","date_published":"2015-09-28T16:05:12Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:26:30Z","subjects":["Speech Communication"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["(MiAaPQ)AAI9990073"],"render_values":[{"text":"(MiAaPQ)AAI9990073","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/87575","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Conley, Thomas M."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Manolescu, Beth Innocenti"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2015-09-28T16:05:12Z","10000-01-01","2000"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Speech Communication"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Speech Communication"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/87575","(MiAaPQ)AAI9990073"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["I argue that Elements of Criticism is best understood as advocating a method of critical practice that addresses contemporary social, political, and nationalistic circumstances. It uses principles of human nature not simply as an intellectual response to the new philosophy, but rather for pedagogical purposes in the interests of social mobility. The first part of the dissertation focuses on Elements itself and the second part on Kames's other major works. In the first part, I provide a detailed summary of Elements in order to highlight its principles of organization and critical method, and to introduce some of the leading features of its context. Kames's Shakespeare criticism serves as a case study to more fully detail these intellectual, social, political, and nationalistic features. In the second part, I show that Kames also uses principles of human nature for pedagogical purposes in the interests of social mobility throughout his career and in different subject matters: law and history. Kames's legal career and legal works show how principles of human nature helped him to gain professional notice as well as to appeal to readers of polite taste. I more fully detail this latter audience---middling readers---with reference to Kames's Sketches of the History of Man. In this work, too, we see that Kames uses principles of human nature to organize a vast amount of detail selected in part for the purposes of informing and entertaining middling readers. The continuity of the circumstances Elements addressed---such as interests in displaying taste and in science---contributed to the use of Elements as a rhetoric textbook through the nineteenth century. The changes in circumstances---such as an interest in scientific progress, increasingly egalitarian views of education, and world war---contributed to its later dismissal.","Made available in DSpace on 2015-09-28T16:05:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 4848 bytes, checksum: 96035ab3f5e1c23cc7138a224ce498bd (MD5) 9990073.pdf: 27665013 bytes, checksum: fda5593f22a62d80d1c5f2cd7b98604d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2000","Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 88856 Lift date: Forever Reason: Restricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETDs","Restricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETDs","U of I Only","462 p.","Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2000."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["\"Lord Kames's \"\"Elements of Criticism\"\" in Context\""]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Conley, Thomas M."],"dc:creator":["Manolescu, Beth Innocenti"],"dc:date":["2015-09-28T16:05:12Z","10000-01-01","2000"],"dc:description":["I argue that Elements of Criticism is best understood as advocating a method of critical practice that addresses contemporary social, political, and nationalistic circumstances. It uses principles of human nature not simply as an intellectual response to the new philosophy, but rather for pedagogical purposes in the interests of social mobility. The first part of the dissertation focuses on Elements itself and the second part on Kames's other major works. In the first part, I provide a detailed summary of Elements in order to highlight its principles of organization and critical method, and to introduce some of the leading features of its context. Kames's Shakespeare criticism serves as a case study to more fully detail these intellectual, social, political, and nationalistic features. In the second part, I show that Kames also uses principles of human nature for pedagogical purposes in the interests of social mobility throughout his career and in different subject matters: law and history. Kames's legal career and legal works show how principles of human nature helped him to gain professional notice as well as to appeal to readers of polite taste. I more fully detail this latter audience---middling readers---with reference to Kames's Sketches of the History of Man. In this work, too, we see that Kames uses principles of human nature to organize a vast amount of detail selected in part for the purposes of informing and entertaining middling readers. The continuity of the circumstances Elements addressed---such as interests in displaying taste and in science---contributed to the use of Elements as a rhetoric textbook through the nineteenth century. The changes in circumstances---such as an interest in scientific progress, increasingly egalitarian views of education, and world war---contributed to its later dismissal.","Made available in DSpace on 2015-09-28T16:05:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 4848 bytes, checksum: 96035ab3f5e1c23cc7138a224ce498bd (MD5) 9990073.pdf: 27665013 bytes, checksum: fda5593f22a62d80d1c5f2cd7b98604d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2000","Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 88856 Lift date: Forever Reason: Restricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETDs","Restricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETDs","U of I Only","462 p.","Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2000."],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/87575","(MiAaPQ)AAI9990073"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:subject":["Speech Communication"],"dc:title":["\"Lord Kames's \"\"Elements of Criticism\"\" in Context\""],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Speech Communication"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:26:30Z"}