6533b7d1fe1ef96bd125c92f
RESEARCH PRODUCT
La croyance dans le fumoir : “The Portrait of Mr. WH”, l’éthique de la croyance de William Kingdon Clifford et l’assentiment selon John Henry Newman
Bénédicte Costesubject
assent'The Portrait of Mr. W. H'John Henry NewmanWilliam Kingdon CliffordOscar Wilde 1854-1900 -- Critique et interprétation[SHS] Humanities and Social Sciencesbeliefethics of beliefdescription
Wilde’s story “The Portrait of Mr. W.H.” blurs literary genres, asserts the importance of the false and plays with reader expectations. It has generated a substantial exege- sis, perhaps lacking in interest in the multi-faceted debates on belief running through the 1870s-1880s. Wilde takes part in that debate through a text of uncertain status and complex editorial history, contrasting Newmanian assent with W.K. Clifford’s ethics of belief (1877), before asserting the supremacy of desire, thus ruining all assent and epistemically justified belief. To the demanding philosophical-religious theories of Clifford and Newman, Wilde responds with an ambiguous, subversive narrative, intended to complexify theses that he no doubt considers too simple for the common man, i.e. the subjects of desire that are his readers.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-01-01 |