Quixotic Spirit of the Humanities
The spirit of humanities involves an illumination of what texts describe the problematic nature of human condition. The quixotic spirit of humanities, thus, is based on a pursuit of ideals that are manifested by romantic ideas or extremely gallant actions, and is characteristic of any visionary action as exhibited by Don Quixote. An act of reform or rebellion where the reformer seeks to change and existing institution by undermining it. This paper seeks to analyze the quixotic spirit of humanities regarding the classical Greek philosophy, Roman law, and 17th century literature.
The quixotic spirit of humanities is motivated by Aristotle’s concept of virtue and conveyed through the traditions of Socrates and Plato. The quixotic spirit strives for justice and prudence. According to Aristotle, justice is complete virtue in the fullest sense held between the citizens of the polity. Quixote saw justice as the quality that keeps and preserves self-discipline, courage, and wisdom. It, further, assumes kindness and empathetic feelings towards others as evident in Socrates and Plato’s teachings (Riley, 1986). The quixotic spirit of humanities insists on the virtues of prudence, temperance, and fortitude while learning that it is not important to obtain the prize sought, but rather nobility lies in the dedication and effort one uses to obtain such ideals. In line with the Greek philosophy, the quixotic spirit of humanities posits that men of good character should be appointed in places of authority.
Quixotic spirit of humanities reveres the universal, uniform codes of laws presented in Roman law. The Roman law involved a king at the top of a divinely ordained hierarchy of institutions ran by servants who had trained in law, indicating a congruence of goals between letrados and monarchy. The spirit of humanities according to Don Quixote entails the fear of God to attain wisdom that makes one devoid of err. Quixote prefers piety to education to avert the travesty which would compromise the judicial system thereby rendering its verdicts worthless. The quixotic spirit of humanities is inspired by the notion that law must be based on ethics, and the rights and duties of men be derived from the principles of natural justice. Quixote, further, prefers arms over letters, fairness when executing the law, and incorruptible nature (Ciofalo, 1997).
The Quixotic spirit of humanities shares characteristics with the 17th century literature as it was based on a shift to an age of reason from the age of faith. The 17th century literature represented turmoil in religion, society, and monarchy. Imagination, as evident in the quixotic spirit of humanities, is the path to reason (Riley, 1986). Reason must maintain and lift imagination for it to stand and organize empirical information in universal terms. Quixote utilizes a humanist view to survey society, which includes the background of characters, and criticizes the feudalist ideas in the literature of the time. Additionally, the quixotic spirit of humanities proposed a shift from knight literature to humanism literature. The quixotic spirit of humanities connects various social cultures together and localizes imagination and empirical information.
The quixotic spirit of humanities is based on Cervantes’ Don Quixote which borrows from the classical Greek philosophy of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, the Roman law, and 17th century literature. The spirit entails absolute notions of the truth, practical wisdom regarding the knowledge of good and evil, what to seek or avoid, and a shift from knight literature. Therefore, imagination should be applied to complete the world and construct new vantage points as posited by the quixotic spirit of humanities.
References
Ciofalo, J. J. (1997). Goya’s enlightenment protagonist-a quixotic dreamer of reason. Eighteenth-Century Studies, 30(4), 421-436.
Riley, E. C. (1986). Don Quixote. G. Allen & Unwin.
Leave a Reply