Melville's Epistemology: Moby-Dick and The Problem of the Universe

In Moby-Dick, the sailor Ishmael expresses exhaustion with the totalizing philosophical systems of Kantian Idealism and Lockean Empiricism. His solution is to “float light” by letting both go. Throughout the text, Ishmael also references a “Problem of the Universe,” which arises in philosophical contemplation. In this paper, I connect the “Problem of the Universe” to Ishmael’s fraught relationship with philosophical systems. Leaning on K.L. Evans’ Wittgensteinian analysis of Moby-Dick, I argue that the text embodies an epistemology most similar to Wittgenstein’s ordinary-language theory, which helps us make sense of the Problem.Plan II Honors Progra