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Ideas y Valores
Print version ISSN 0120-0062
Abstract
PAVESI, PABLO. DESCARTES AND THE DEVIL THE ORATORY OF EVIL. Ideas y Valores [online]. 2018, vol.67, n.168, pp.243-265. ISSN 0120-0062. https://doi.org/10.15446/ideasyvalores.v67n168.70114.
In his Letter to Voetius, Descartes writes that his enemy is the devil, the enemy. The accusation is etymologically coherent (Voetius is the libeler, whose word divides men) and introduces an exception to metaphysics, a will to evil. Finally, malignity hates truth (absurditas): it is deliberately irrational. The article examines the oratory of evil: first, its rhetorical devices (in contrast with the rhetoric of Guez de Balzac); second, the passions it elicits (in contrast with Passions of the Soul) and their combination with a specific passion, pious rage; and third, its effects: the dissolution of the civil bond among citizens and the friendship bond family members.
Keywords : R. Descartes; evil; oratory; passions; rhetoric.