La raison contre l’imagination au XVIIe siècle
Reason against Imagination in the Seventeenth Century

Summary/Abstract: The modern conflict between myth and logos began with the “new philosophy” of the seventeenth century. Rationalist philosophers, such as Descartes, Malebranche and Spinoza, and humanist thinkers, such as Thomas Browne and Robert Burton, made a distinction between senses, imagination and reason, considering that only the first and the third faculties are reliable, while fantasy is the source of all errors. This is how imagination became, metaphorically, the “madwoman in the house”. Excluded from the “method” of correct thinking, it was considered responsible for the superstitions, heresies, fantasies and other fallacies of common sense and collective representations.

• Details
• Contents