Title: Physical Vision, Imagination and Spiritual Vision: “The Envisioned Truth” in Paradise Lost

Abstract: In Paradise Lost, Milton uses the action of seeing to represent the quest of truth. “Seeing” in the epic can be divided into three types, physical vision, imagination and spiritual vision. This article, in light of platonic theory of truth, analyses the cognitive mechanisms and results of each kind of “seeing.” The analysis reveals that physical vision, though vulnerable to the influence of evil, is a principal beginning of the recollection of truth. The imagination of appearances only produces opinion while inspirational imagination serves as a mediator between sensual and divine knowledge. Spiritual vision is the most ideal means of cognition and the spiritual vision of God sets the Good as the ultimate truth. Such analysis demonstrates that the means of cognition and the standard of envisioned truth in the epic are platonic, further revealing the classic dimension of Miltonic epistemological ideas.  

Keywords: John Milton, Paradise Lost, physical vision, imagination, spiritual vision, “the envisioned truth”

Author: Minghua Qu, School of English Studies, Dalian University of Foreign Languages, Dalian, Liaoning, China; Wei Wang, Associate Professor, School of English Studies, Dalian University of Foreign Languages, Dalian, Liaoning, China.

DOI: 10.19967/j.cnki.flc.2022.04.005