The ‘Pseudologia’ and Scientific Learning

Abstract

It is clear from the description of it that the ‘Pseudologia’ is a most comprehensive and ambitious theory. Priced at fourteen shillings it was not an inconsiderable tome, eleven or twelve chapters in the first volume and a second of unspecified length. When Swift wrote to ‘Stella’ about The Art of Political Lying it was to its parodic treatment of learning that he pointed.¹ We need to ask what sort of theory it purports to be. Although Arbuthnot’s projecting persona is largely uncritical of its claims about lying and about knowledge itself, Arbuthnot’s own attitudes to and faith in the sciences are not far from the surface. As Ross correctly notes, a ‘…thread of scientific preoccupation runs all the way through his life’.²

‘From both parents [Conradus Crambe] drew a natural disposition to Sport himself with words, which as they are said to be the counters of wise Men, and ready money of Fools, Crambe had a great store of cash of the latter sort.’

John Arbuthnot and Alexander Pope, Memoirs of the Extraordinary Life, Works and Discoveries of Martinus Scriblerus, ch. 7 p. 118.