Arts of Perception : The Epistemological Mentality of the Spanish Baroque, 1580-1720

__Arts of Perception__ offers a new account of a key period in Spanish history and culture and a fundamental reassessment of its major writers and intellectuals, including Gracián, Quevedo, Calderón, Saavedra Fajardo, López de Vega, and Sor Juana. Reading these figures in the context of European thought and the new science, and philosophy, the study considers how they developed various ‘arts of perception’ - complex perceptual strategies designed to overcome and exploit epistemic problems to enable an individual to act effectively in the moral, political, social or religious sphere. The study takes as its subject the distinctive epistemological mentality behind such ‘arts of perception’. This mentality was fostered by the creative interaction of scepticism and Stoicism, and found expression in the key concepts ser/parecer and engaño/desengaño. The work traces the emergence, development, and impact of these concepts on Spanish thought and culture. As well as offering new interpretations of specific major figures, __Arts of Perception__ offers an interpretation of the mentality of an entire culture as it made the fraught transition to intellectual modernity. As such it ranges over numerous discourses and formative contexts and provides a wealth of new material which will be of use to all those seeking to understand and interpret the literature, culture and thought of Golden Age Spain. This book was previously published as a special issue of __The Bulletin of Spanish Studies.__ Cover Page Arts of Perception Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction The Arts of Perception Chapter One: The Rediscovery of Pyrrhonism Chapter Two: Neostoicism, Value Judgement and Moral Perception Chapter Three: Politics, Knowledge and Scepticism Chapter Four: Prudence and the Compass of Deceit Chapter Five: The Exploitation of Ignorance Chapter Six: Knowledge, Self and Honour Chapter Seven: The Acclimatization of Scepticism: Scepticism and Stoicism in Antonio Lopez de Vega Chapter Eight: Baltasar Gracian's El Criticon and the Arts of Perception Chapter Nine: From Baroque to Pre-Enlightenment: Resolving the Epistemological Crisis Selected Bibliography Index "Arts of Perception offers a new account of a key period in Spanish history and culture and a fundamental reassessment of its major writers and intellectuals, including Gracian, Quevedo, Calderon, Saavedra Fajardo, Lopez de Vega, and Sor Juana."--BOOK JACKET