"To enter on causes of Philosophy," Swift wrote, "is what I protest I will rather dy in a ditch than go about."

Why would Swift make such a statement?

WDoes the fact that he made it mean that he was not a philosopher, or that he was not concerned with philosophical issues? If, in those portions of his work which we have read, he does seem to have been concerned with certain philosophical issues, what are they?


Incorporated in the Victorian Web July 2000