Palgrave Macmillan, London , London, 2018
What role do fables play in Cartesian method and psychology? By looking
at Descartes’ use of fables, James Griffith suggests there is a fabular
logic that runs to the heart of Descartes’ philosophy. First focusing on
The World and the Discourse on Method, this volume shows
that by writing in fable form, Descartes allowed his readers to break
from Scholastic methods of philosophizing. With this fable-structure or
-logic in mind, the book reexamines the relationship between analysis,
synthesis, and inexact sciences; between metaphysics and
ethico-political life; and between the imagination, the will, and the
passions.