Fable-structure or -logic

pp. 47-85

in: James Griffith, Fable, method, and imagination in Descartes, Berlin, Springer, 2018

Abstract

Investigating Descartes' use of the fable in the strict sense has shown how he distinguishes the rule-generation and rule-obedience of fable from the chaos of poetry and shown that this form serves the pedagogical purpose of inaugurating a mental movement on the part of his readers. However, since "fable' is mentioned and used only a few times positively over the course of Descartes' career, showing how it lays out a structure for his philosophy cannot be isolated to its precise mention. Thus, it is now necessary to show a fable-structure or -logic at work throughout. If it can be shown that there is such a structure or logic at work, the pedagogico-literary form of fable can be taken as a way to engage method and imagination.