Abstract
Not normally considered a philosopher, the novelist Miguel de Cervantes nevertheless touched upon many of his era’s most important philosophical themes. After a representative sampling of what might be called philosophical moments in Cervantes’s works, we shall proceed systematically to examine his connection to three distinct philosophical schools or movements: skepticism, cynicism, and sophistry. We shall then consider some innovative and original aspects of Cervantes’s thinking by comparing him to first Plato and then to Descartes. Finally, we will conclude with his views of both epistemology and ontology before saying a word about his legacy and influence on later philosophers.
References
Primary Literature
Cervantes M (1980) El coloquio de los perros. In: Novelas ejemplares (ed Sieber H), vol 2. Cátedra, Madrid
Cervantes M (1997) Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda (ed Romero Muñoz C). Cátedra, Madrid
Cervantes M (2002) El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (ed Rico F). Biblioteca Clásica. Crítica, Barcelona
Ortega y Gasset J (1961) Meditations on Quixote (trans: Rugg E, Marín D; ed: Marías J). W.W. Norton, New York
Unamuno M (1968) Vida de Don Quijote y Sancho. In: Obras completas (ed García Blanco M). Nuevos ensayos, vol 3. Escelicer, Madrid, pp 49–256
Secondary Literature
Cascardi AJ (1983) Cervantes and skepticism: the vanishing of the body. In: Molloy S and Fernández Cifuentes L (eds) Essays on Hispanic literature in Honor of Edmund L. King. Tamesis, London
Cascardi AJ (1982) Skepticism and the problem of criteria in the Quixote. Revista de estudios hispánicos 9:31–37
Cascardi AJ (1984) Cervantes and Descartes on the dream argument. Cervantes 4:109–122
Cascardi AJ (1986) The bounds of reason: Cervantes, Dostoevsky, Flaubert. Columbia University Press, New York
Cascardi AJ (1987) The theory of the novel as philosophy: Lukács, Unamuno, Ortega. Rev can stud hisp 11(2):223–241
Cascardi AJ (2000) Two kinds of knowing in Plato, Cervantes, and Aristotle. Philos Lit 24(2):406–423
Cascardi AJ (2010) Indirect discourse in Cervantes and philosophy: persecution and the art of writing. Arena Romanistica 6:20–35
Cascardi AJ (2012) Cervantes, literature, and the discourse of politics. University of Toronto Press, Toronto
Castro A (1972) El pensamiento de Cervantes (ed RodrÚguez-PuÕrtolas J). Noguer, Barcelona
Chen Sham J (1999) Política y filosofía en la interpretación noventayochista del Quijote. Anu Estudios Filológicos 22:99–111
Close A (1972) Don Quixote and Unamuno’s philosophy of art. In: Glendinning N (ed) Studies in modern Spanish literature and art presented to Helen F. Grant. Tamesis, London, pp 25–44
Forcione AK (1970) Cervantes, Aristotle, and the Persiles. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Forcione AK (1982) Cervantes and the humanist vision: a study of four exemplary novels. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Gagliardi A (2003) Cervantes filosofo: averroismo e cristianesimo. Tirrenia, Turin
Gagliardi A (2004) Cervantes e l’umanesimo: Don Chisciotte della Mancia. Tirrenia, Turin
Graf EC (2004) Martin and the ghosts of the Papacy: Don Quijote 1.19 between Sulpicius Severus and Thomas Hobbes. Mod Lang Notes 119(5):949–978
Ihrie M (1982) Skepticism in Cervantes. Tamesis, London
Merkl H (2011) Cervantes anti-sofista: sobre Platón, Ficino, y los tres “Quijotes”. Academia del Hispanismo, Vigo
Mujica B (1993) Cervantes’ use of skepticism in El retablo de las maravillas. In: Mujica B et al (eds) Looking at the Comedia in the year of the Quincentennial (Proceedings of the 1992 symposium on Golden Age drama at the University of Texas, El Paso, March 18–21). University Press of America, Lanham, pp 149–158
Nadler S (1997) Descartes’s demon and the madness of Don Quixote. J Hist Ideas 58(1):41–55
Nerlich M (1989) On the philosophical dimension of El casamiento engaþoso and El coloquio de los perros. In: Nerlich M and Spadaccini N (eds) Cervantes’s “exemplary novels” and the adventure of writing. The Prisma Institute, Minneapolis, pp 247–329
Oliver A (1954) La filosofía en El licenciado Vidriera. Anu Cervantino 4:225–238
Presberg CD (2001) Adventures in Paradox: Don Quixote and the Western tradition. The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park
Riley EC (1976) Cervantes and the Cynics. Bull Hisp Stud 53(3):189–199
Spitzer L (1974) Perspectivismo lingüístico en El Quijote. In: Lingüística e historia literaria. Gredos, Madrid, pp 135–187
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this entry
Cite this entry
Kallendorf, H. (2014). Cervantes, Miguel. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_112-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_112-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02848-4
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities