Foolhardy Yet Courageous: Is There Such a Thing as Quixotic Virtue?

Roupa, Vicky (2020). Foolhardy Yet Courageous: Is There Such a Thing as Quixotic Virtue? In: Hagberg, Garry ed. Fictional Worlds and the Moral Imagination. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 19–38.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55049-3_2

URL: https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783030550486

Abstract

Quixote is a caricature of a knight errant; steeped into his fictional heroes, he undertakes to revive a tradition long dead, and in the process leaves behind some unforgettable images of knightly virtue turned sour. This caricature, however, is not simply a ploy meant to arouse laughter, but also an occasion to revisit the emphasis on knowledge and good sense with which virtue has been aligned in the Socratic/Platonic tradition. The challenge Quixote represents concerns the relation between reasoning and the ability to “get it right” in practice; by sundering these apart, Cervantes forces a reconsideration of the unity of thought and action.

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