Poe and the Cogito

In "Descent into the Maelstrom," "M.S. Lost in a Bottle," "The Pit and the Pendulum," and "The Fall of the House of Usher," the material universe inhabited by Poe's characters is shifting, chaotic, and treacherous, and the narrator's knowledge of thi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Southern literary journal 2009-09, Vol.42 (1), p.57-72
Main Author: Folks, Jeffrey
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
American literature
Anscombe, G E M
Cartesianism
Certitude
Cogito
Competition
Criticism and interpretation
Ego
Existence
Identity
Influence
Metaphysics
Mind
Narrators
Poe, Edgar Allan
Poe, Edgar Allan (1809-1849)
Political aspects
Protagonists
Psychological aspects
Reason
Social aspects
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:In "Descent into the Maelstrom," "M.S. Lost in a Bottle," "The Pit and the Pendulum," and "The Fall of the House of Usher," the material universe inhabited by Poe's characters is shifting, chaotic, and treacherous, and the narrator's knowledge of this world is consequently unreliable in ways that summon up the central philosophical dilemmas investigated by Descartes: the dream hypothesis (the inability to prove a distinction between waking and dreaming states) and the demon hypothesis (the possibility that existence is unknowingly controlled by a demonic power). [...] Poe's flight from the damage of the cogito led him further away from this sort of coherence.
ISSN:0038-4291
1534-1461
2470-9506
1534-1461
2474-8102
DOI:10.1353/slj.0.0050