Abstract

SHUTTERA, Alejandro Sacbé. Reason and Illness. The Madness of the Cogito and the Limits of Modern Fiction. Acta poét [online]. 2017, vol.38, n.2, pp.63-84. ISSN 2448-735X.  https://doi.org/10.19130/iifl.ap.2017.2.801.

Descartes tried to avoid sensitive matters in the search for a solid foundation for human knowledge. Nevertheless, since the beginning of the doubting process he appeals to a fiction, whether this means a purely logic-methodological assumption or a sensory figment of the imagination. This subject is found at the core of a famous dispute between Foucault and Derrida and, more recently, in an argument posed by Jean-Paul Margot against a “foucauldian” reading of Descartes. We will examine these approaches in regard the “Cartesian gesture,” concerning the relationship between madness and the birth of the hospital, as well as madness, art and philosophy.

Keywords : doubt; extravagance; madness; Hospital; discipline; disease; language.

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