The essay analyses the fourth voyage in Swift's "Gulliver's travels". Its central argument is that evil may stem from a manipulation of truth in the very name of truth. Swift's rational horses are shown to be falsely rational in the very act of their wanting to be pure and logical. Morevoer, their idea of exterminating the filthy Yahoos, because irrational, demonstrates that logics is not necessarily tantamount to ethics. Swift exposes man’s scandal, i.e. man's being perpetually on the threshold between humanity and inhumanity. Without ever showing the way out of the logical impasse of the irrational rationality of man, Swift vexes the reader obliging him/her to find an answer within him/herself.

Gulliver's Myopic Reformation: Reason and Evil in Gulliver's Travels

GREGORI, Flavio
2004-01-01

Abstract

The essay analyses the fourth voyage in Swift's "Gulliver's travels". Its central argument is that evil may stem from a manipulation of truth in the very name of truth. Swift's rational horses are shown to be falsely rational in the very act of their wanting to be pure and logical. Morevoer, their idea of exterminating the filthy Yahoos, because irrational, demonstrates that logics is not necessarily tantamount to ethics. Swift exposes man’s scandal, i.e. man's being perpetually on the threshold between humanity and inhumanity. Without ever showing the way out of the logical impasse of the irrational rationality of man, Swift vexes the reader obliging him/her to find an answer within him/herself.
2004
"To Vindicate the Ways of God to Man": Theodicy and Literature
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10278/28396
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