Neo-Stoicism and Skepticism in Part One of Don Quijote

Neo-Stoicism and Skepticism in Part One of Don Quijote
Author: Daniel Lorca
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2016-07-15
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1498522661

This book explains how Cervantes took advantage of neo-stoicism and skepticism to remove the authority of the romances of chivalry, which was a popular genre during his time. It also explains why his strategy, which would have been instantly recognizable during the period, is no longer effective: our current moral systems are significantly different from the moral systems that were influential during Cervantes’s time, and consequently, what used to be self-evident is no longer the case. Therefore, this book may be useful to the literary critic interested in the philosophical foundations of Don Quijote, to the moral philosopher interested in the differences between pre-enlightenment virtue-ethics and current moral systems, and also in the field of the history of ideas. Don Quijote offers a unique opportunity to observe changes in moral thinking throughout time because it is a universal book, discussed extensively throughout out the centuries, and therefore the on-going discussion offers strong evidence to discover how morality has changed, and continues to change, through time.

Disenchantment, Skepticism, and the Early Modern Novel in Spain and France

Disenchantment, Skepticism, and the Early Modern Novel in Spain and France
Author: Ann T. Delehanty
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2022-12-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000825264

This volume examines five early modern novels from the seventeenth century in Spain and France as examples of literature as a form of skeptical inquiry: Cervantes’s Don Quijote, Zayas’s Desengaños amorosos, Scarron’s Roman comique, Cyrano de Bergerac’s L’Autre Monde, and Mme. de Lafayette’s Zayde. These early modern novels encourage readers to take a critical stance toward accepted beliefs, through content that stages multiple encounters with the shockingly unfamiliar as well as through experiments in literary form, especially the interpolated story. At its broadest reach, this study asserts the fundamental value of literature as a means of encouraging discernment, recognizing the illusory, and honing critical acuity. In terms of the particularity of the historical moment, the volume also identifies the early modern novel as uniquely able to represent the conflicting value spheres of early modernity because of its ability to present multiple voices and its fascination with conflicting vantage points. Due to its interdisciplinary nature, Disenchantment, Skepticism, and the Early Modern Novel in Spain and France appeals to literary scholars and intellectual historians of the early modern period in Europe, as well as to advanced undergraduates and postgraduates studying the early novel, intellectual history, and philosophy of literature.

Cervantes and the Humanist Vision

Cervantes and the Humanist Vision
Author: Alban K. Forcione
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 424
Release: 2017-03-14
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1400886058

This book sets the Novelas ejemplares in the mainstream of Christian Humanism and shows that their narrative forms manifest the breadth of the Christian Humanist vision as much as does the more overtly revolutionary Don Quixote. Originally published in 1983. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Substance of Cervantes

The Substance of Cervantes
Author: John G. Weiger
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2010-12-09
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780521168342

A 1986 examination of the foundation upon which Cervantes constructed his works from La Galatea (1585) to Persiles y Sigismunda (1617).

Cervantes and Modernity

Cervantes and Modernity
Author: Eric Clifford Graf
Publisher: Bucknell University Press
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2007
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 9780838756553

Graf argues that the doubts expressed by both historicists and postmodernists regarding the progressive nature of Don Quijote are exaggerated. Neither do interpretations that abstain from this debate by emphasizing authorial ambivalence or positioning the novel at a crossroads seem as responsible as they once did. Beyond these skeptical and neutral alternatives, there are key steps forward in Cervantes's worldview. These four essays detail Don Quijote's anticipations of many of the same ideas and values that drive today's multiculturalism, feminism, secularism, and materialism. An important thesis here is that the Enlightenment remains the best vantage point from which to appreciate the novel's relation to the discourses of such movements. Thus Voltaire's Candide (1759), Feijoo's Defensa de las mujeres (1726), and Hobbes' Leviathan (1651) are each shown to be logical extensions of some of Cervante's most fundamental propositions. Finally, this book will still be of interest to specialists immune to the ideological anxieties arising from debates over notions of modernity. Graf also explores the interrelated meaning of a number of Don Quijote's symbols, characters, and episodes, pinpoints several of the novel's most important classical and medieval sources, and unveils for us its first serious English reader.

The Bounds of Reason

The Bounds of Reason
Author: Anthony J. Cascardi
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 1986
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780231062121

Skepticism in Early Modern English Literature

Skepticism in Early Modern English Literature
Author: Anita Gilman Sherman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2021-04-29
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1108905358

This ambitious account of skepticism's effects on major authors of England's Golden Age shows how key philosophical problems inspired literary innovations in poetry and prose. When figures like Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, Herbert of Cherbury, Cavendish, Marvell and Milton question theories of language, degrees of knowledge and belief, and dwell on the uncertainties of perception, they forever change English literature, ushering it into a secular mode. While tracing a narrative arc from medieval nominalism to late seventeenth-century taste, the book explores the aesthetic pleasures and political quandaries induced by skeptical doubt. It also incorporates modern philosophical views of skepticism: those of Stanley Cavell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Roland Barthes, and Hans Blumenberg, among others. The book thus contributes to interdisciplinary studies of philosophy and literature as well as to current debates about skepticism as a secularizing force, fostering civil liberties and religious freedoms.

Sceptical Doubt and Disbelief in Modern European Thought

Sceptical Doubt and Disbelief in Modern European Thought
Author: Vicente Raga Rosaleny
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2020-10-19
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3030553620

This volume examines modern scepticism in all main philosophical areas: epistemology, science, metaphysics, morals, and religion. It features sixteen essays that explore its importance for modern thought. The contributions present diverse, mutually enriching interpretations of key thinkers, from Montaigne to Nietzsche. The book includes a look both at the relationship between Montaigne and Pascal and at Montaigne’s criticism of religious rationalism. It turns its attention to an investigation into the links between ancient scepticism and Bacon’s Doctrine of the Idols, as well as into the ancient problem of the criterion in Cartesian philosophy. Next, three essays focus on more general topics, like modern sceptical disturbances, clandestine literature and irreligion. Two essays investigate the role of scepticism in Bayle’s moral thinking and his theory of religious toleration. Hume’s sceptical philosophy is the subject of two papers by distinguished scholars. In addition, many contributors address the presence of scepticism in Kant and in the German Idealism, such as the role of Schulze's scepticism in the works of the young Hegel. The book closes with a paper on Nietzsche and scepticism, and an essay on the role of Popkin’s and Schmitt’s works on modern scepticism. This collection continues along a rich, fruitful path opened by Richard H. Popkin and pursued by many important scholars, like Gianni Paganini, John-Christian Laursen, and José Raimundo Maia Neto. It re-establishes that necessary dialogue between researchers of scepticism from all over the Americas, which began with Popkin, Oswaldo Porchat and Ezequiel de Olaso long ago. This insightful reflection on modern European scepticism will also serve as an important resource in the history of modern philosophy.

The Oxford Handbook of Cervantes

The Oxford Handbook of Cervantes
Author: Aaron M. Kahn
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 731
Release: 2021-02-16
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0198742916

This volume contains seven sections, exploring in depth Cervantes's life and how the trials, tribulations, and hardships endured influenced his writing. Cervantistas from numerous countries, offer their expertise with the most up-to-date research and interpretations to complete this wide-ranging, but detailed, compendium.