Ministry of higher and secondary special education of the republic of uzbekistan state world languages university

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER II
Defoe’s work engages in the debates of his day, ranging from contributions on topics such as economic progress, religious polemics concerning the Dissenters, social problems such as poverty, to topics of party politics and current affairs as well as fictional works. The promotion of knowledge makes part of this wide-ranging work. Apart from factual treatises dealing with learning and education, such as Mere Nature Delineated, and An Essay Upon Projects, Defoe incorporates and appropriates the New Sciences into his fictional work. Robinson Crusoe is an exemplary empiricist when he solves the problems of his island existence by observation and experiment. H.F. collects data and relies on statistics to reach an assessment of the state of the city. Moll Flanders and Roxana keep painstakingly track of their personal information. To them, knowledge is an economic factor, jeopardizing or enabling their income. However, while few, if any, scholars would dispute the significance of the concept of knowledge for Defoe’s work, Defoe’s place in the more general context of the history of knowledge is yet debatable. The textual evidence of his work, as well as the biographical evidence (cf. Novak 1963 and 2001, Backscheider 1989, and Richetti, 2005), underline his almost voracious interest in new developments in all areas of human expertise, skill and knowledge. How far Defoe was aware of conceptual changes in the philosophy of knowledge, and, more importantly, how far he would have felt personally invested in the question, is less clear. One can argue, however, that his work embodies a syncretic attitude towards changes in thinking systems, which means that he appears willing to appropriate new insights into what he considers a working system, if they are not in too great a conflict with his spiritual views.
Conclusion
Defoe’s work engages in the debates of his day, ranging from contributions on topics such as economic progress, religious polemics concerning the Dissenters, social problems such as poverty, to topics of party politics and current affairs as well as fictional works. The promotion of knowledge makes part of this wide-ranging work. Apart from factual treatises dealing with learning and education, such as Mere Nature Delineated, and An Essay Upon Projects, Defoe incorporates and appropriates the New Sciences into his fictional work. Robinson Crusoe is an exemplary empiricist when he solves the problems of his island existence by observation and experiment. H.F. collects data and relies on statistics to reach an assessment of the state of the city. Moll Flanders and Roxana keep painstakingly track of their personal information. To them, knowledge is an economic factor, jeopardizing or enabling their income. However, while few, if any, scholars would dispute the significance of the concept of knowledge for Defoe’s work, Defoe’s place in the more general context of the history of knowledge is yet debatable. The textual evidence of his work, as well as the biographical evidence (cf. Novak 1963 and 2001, Backscheider 1989, and Richetti, 2005), underline his almost voracious interest in new developments in all areas of human expertise, skill and knowledge. How far Defoe was aware of conceptual changes in the philosophy of knowledge, and, more importantly, how far he would have felt personally invested in the question, is less clear. One can argue, however, that his work embodies a syncretic attitude towards changes in thinking systems, which means that he appears willing to appropriate new insights into what he considers a working system, if they are not in too great a conflict with his spiritual views.