Gulliver and the Needless Abstractions

Inhis novel Gulliver’s Travels (1726), Anglo-Irish author Jonathan Swift critiques contemporary science through the lens of the protagonist, Gulliver. Gulliver keeps a “pocket perspective” that he uses to peer far out into the universe, losing sight of his place in the world and the omnipresent Creator around him. In that Age of Enlightenment, during the continuation of the Scientific Revolution in Europe, Swift’s conservative values conflicted with the innovations of the time. Swift was an Anglican cleric, and in accordance with Anglican philosophy at the time, he believed in the Great Chain of Being, a concept that stated all life was decreed directly by God. Anglicans saw divinity in hierarchical order, starting with nonliving things, then ascending through plants, animals, commoners, royalty, angels, and ultimately God. In contrast to this system, the Royal Society, England’s leading scientific institution, was dedicated to finding objective truth and empowering men with scientific knowledge. Swift observed the transition from a philosophy of natural order to mathematically driven, scientific abstractions, and believed that modern science would uproot the Great Chain of Being, placing man above God. In response, Swift satirizes science through his depiction of the floating island of Laputa and the scientist-run Academy in Laputa’s capital, Lagado, emphasizing how abstract scientific developments disregard the limits of human knowledge.

Swift contrasts the citizens of Laputa’s obsession with science with their technical shortcomings, to argue that needless abstractions of contemporary science exemplify man overstepping his boundaries. Upon observing Laputan architecture, Gulliver notes that “their houses are very ill built,... and this defect ariseth from the contempt they bear to practical geometry” (137). Swift criticizes scientists via Gulliver’s insults of the Laputans’ poor workmanship and aversion to “practical” design. Swift demonstrates his view that scientists attempt to level themselves with God by depicting the Laputans trying to apply their elaborate calculations to simple architecture. The towers of Laputa, like the Biblical Tower of Babel, stretch high into the clouds, attempting to level with the Creator without consideration of human limitations. Swift implies that contemporary scientists, represented by the Laputans, devote their life’s work to studying impractical subjects, forget the limit of human capabilities and reason, and unnecessarily overcomplicate simple tasks. Additionally, Gulliver insults the Laputans by describing how “they are wholly strangers to… imagination, fancy, and invention” (137). Through Gulliver, Swift argues that his contemporary scientists share the same traits. Instead of exhibiting humanist qualities such as creativity and innovation, Swift’s scientists seek to think on a higher, more abstract level.

Swift believes that instead of contributing to the greater good of humanity, scientists unethically strive to understand the fundamental truths of the universe. Moreover, Gulliver highlights that the Laputans “are under continual disquietudes” and that “they are so perpetually alarmed with… impending dangers, that they can neither sleep quietly… nor have any relish for the… amusements of life” (138-139). Gulliver reflects Swift’s view of his contemporaries, including Isaac Newton who predicted the possibility that the Earth could plummet into the sun. Through Gulliver, Swift underlines how scientists play God by preoccupying themselves with predictions of “impending dangers” and disaster. Instead of using their knowledge to improve people’s lives, Swift suggests, scientists apply their theories naively and claim to know as much as God, including the end of the universe. Through the defects of Laputan society, Swift expresses his disdain for what he sees as scientists’ heedlessness toward the Great Chain of Being.

Swift parodies scientific institutions through his description of the Lagadan Academy, demonstrating how he believes that scientists conduct futile experiments. Lord Munodi, a Laputan character who helps Gulliver tour the Academy, tells Gulliver that “projectors came to him with proposals to destroy [his] mill, and build another… whereof a long canal must be cut,” but that “the work miscarried” and “the projectors went off” (150-151). Munodi describes the incompetent and exploitative projectors, just as Swift parodies the Royal Society and criticizes its scientists. Through Munodi’s description, Swift underlines how science experiments often fail or have little benefit upon completion, despite claiming to revolutionize the scientific community and the world. Swift argues that failed, impractical experiments are an example of man overestimating their knowledge, claiming omniscient insight into solving the world’s problems. Additionally, when Gulliver enters the Academy, he is shown a word-generating “invention” and describes how a “professor showed [him] several volumes… of broken sentences which he intended to piece together” and that “the world would soon be sensible of its usefulness” (154-155). The machine resembles the computer and the professor assures Gulliver that his invention will benefit humanity. The computer represents trivial Royal Society inventions that were created to contribute to the world and demonstrate their “usefulness.” Swift’s description of the mundane and impractical computer underlines the short-sightedness of scientists who believe their contrived and mundane experiments will change the world. Furthermore, according to Douglas Lane Patey, a specialist in 18th-century literature, “Gulliver witnesses experiments that serve no practical human use” and that “in seeking to reverse the order of nature,” the projectors—“like all Moderns—have forgotten the… distinction between the sciences of demonstration and the arts of prudence” (9-10). Patey equates the Lagadan projectors to modern scientists and states that Swift noticed scientists straying from empirical practices and attempting to control nature. Similar to the Lagadan projectors, scientists of his day attempted to discover the unknowable through alchemy or predictions of the universe. According to Swift, these ambitious scientists defy God and overstep the boundary of their position as humans.

Swift’s satirical representation of Laputa and Lagado underlines his opposition to scientific research, as he considered it an immoral dismissal of human limitations and an improper yearning for omniscience. Swift’s critique of trivial scientific research is as relevant today as in the 18th century. Similar to how Swift observed the scientists of the Royal Society as scheming “projectors,” the present-day reader draws a connection between the Lagadans and modern entrepreneurs with undeveloped ideas and a lack of long-term plans. Like the Laputans, people today are engrossed in their technology, using it for the simplest tasks and overcomplicating their lives with god-like computing power. Our lives would likely be less complicated if, when gazing at the universe through the lens of a pocket perspective, people would maintain their view of the world and remember the importance of the ground beneath them.

Works Cited

Patey, Douglas Lane. “Swift’s Satire on ‘Science’ and the Structure of Gulliver’s Travels.” ELH, vol. 58, no. 4, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991, pp. 809–39, https://doi.org/10.2307/2873283.

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels. W. W. Norton & Company, 2002.

Jonathon T., class of 2022, is an aspiring physicist. He enjoys reading and writing sci-fi and hopes to one day discover new scientific knowledge of his own.

Julia K.