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Discourse on the Method: a philosopher’s Bildungsroman
https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2021-4-168-193
Abstract
The problem raised by the article is defined by a paradox: according to Descartes, education is associated with the darkness of preconceptions, truisms, and instilled prejudices that rely exclusively on the authority of tradition as opposed to light, which is the medium of natural intelligence, free of dogmatism and skepticism alike. The article sets out to solve a dual task: on the one hand, to describe the philosopher’s years of learning and the fruits of his enlightenment, and, on the other, to read Discourse on the Method as a prototypical Bildungsroman that challenges the program of humanistic education adopted during the Renaissance and exposes the novelistic imagination of the author’s contemporaries. Following the method of intellectual history, we discover that the autobiographical setting of Discourse on the Method, combined with the figure of the new conceptual character and the self-reflexive element that reproduces the negative genre-specific model of narration, transform one of the most renowned works of world philosophy into a mature Bildungsroman with a main theme best expressed by the question ‘How to become a philosopher?’
About the Author
S. L. Fokin
St. Petersburg State University of Economics
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Sergey L. Fokin, Doctor of Philology
2 Sadovaya St., St. Petersburg, 191023
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Review
For citations:
Fokin S.L. Discourse on the Method: a philosopher’s Bildungsroman. Voprosy literatury. 2021;(4):168-193. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2021-4-168-193
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