Pro tempore, No. 17, 2022.
Pregledni rad
The French Dialogue With Antiquity: Boileau, Montesquieu, Rousseau, de Sade
Marko Zidarić
Sažetak
This paper aims to analyze literary, philosophical and historiographical works of different authors who write about classical antiquity from different perspectives. Since the classicist poet and literary critic Nicolas Boileau based the main ideas of his well-known treatise The Art of Poetry on Horace's Epistles, this paper reviews how Boileau adopted Horace's opinion on art, the role of artists, and the rules of great literary genres. Furthermore, given that Charles Montesquieu viewed history through the prism of causality, the way in which his method is applied in Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and Their Decline is presented in this paper. It is also presented how Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who elaborated the influential notions of sovereignty and general will in The Social Contract, interpreted these concepts in the context of the Roman Republic – a political system which he considered ideal. Finally, the notorious Marquis de Sade, who presented his view on nature in Philosophy in the Bedroom, used antiquity as a tool for the deconstruction of Christian moral practices. For de Sade, the ancient times are the epitome of a free society and the return to the natural state. Although the four authors observe antiquity from different perspectives, they all idealize it in accordance with their own expertise; the author of this paper aims to find the basis on which their idealizations differ from each other.
Ključne riječi
antiquity; classicism; Nicolas Boileau; philosophy of history; Charles Montesquieu; natural state; social contract; Jean-Jacques Rousseau; Marquis de Sade
Hrčak ID:
301688
URI
Datum izdavanja:
24.12.2022.
Posjeta: 269 *