Lesson plan

Opus Maximum

The Opus Maximum was a set of philosophical manuscripts dictated by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to his friend and colleague, Dr Joseph Henry Green, between 1819 and 1823. It was not published in Coleridge's lifetime, finally emerging in the 2002 version edited by Thomas McFarland with the assistance of Nicholas Halmi. It is not entirely clear what form the book would have taken if Coleridge had published it. He died before he could assemble the various manuscripts and other notes into a publishable form, and the published volume contains four 'fragments' along with two appendixes and evidence of missing chapters. It should be read in conjunction with the separately published Logic, since that volume completes the transcendental deduction which lies at the heart of the enterprise. It was also intended to form part of a larger Magnum Opus or Logosophia, of which parts exist in various manuscripts. Mary Anne Perkins has set out the dimensions of that larger project in her Coleridge's Philosophy.

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Article summary

The Opus Maximum was a set of philosophical manuscripts dictated by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to his friend and colleague, Dr Joseph Henry Green, between 1819 and 1823. It was not published in Coleridge's lifetime, finally emerging in the 2002 version edited by Thomas McFarland with the assistance of Nicholas Halmi. It is not entirely clear what form the book would have taken if Coleridge had published it. He died before he could assemble the various manuscripts and other notes into a publishable form, and the published volume contains four 'fragments' along with two appendixes and evidence of missing chapters. It should be read in conjunction with the separately published Logic, since that volume completes the transcendental deduction which lies at the heart of the enterprise. It was also intended to form part of a larger Magnum Opus or Logosophia, of which parts exist in various manuscripts. Mary Anne Perkins has set out the dimensions of that larger project in her Coleridge's Philosophy.

Key claims

  1. publication date: 2002 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95

Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. The record states that the publication date is "2002". What evidence would count against this claim?
  3. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  4. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

  1. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1333956093

Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.