Literature and rational thought: the logic of ambiguity and the logic of non-contradiction

Abstract

This work aims at discussing the role of imagination and playfulness in the formation of knowledge. It presents the Greek philosophic discourse as the origin of western rational thought, which is established from its opposition to the thought carried by the mythical-poetic discourse. It characterizes the discourse of reason as stemming from the logic of no-contradiction, and the mythical-poetic discourse as constituted by the logic of ambiguity. It also demonstrates the continuity of that division in the 17th century thought by the trust in a reason founded on the logic of cause and opposition. This is, in turn, contradicted by Vico, through the characterization of poetic thought, which presents the logic of similarity and in which analogy and repetition constitute poetic universals. Knowledge produced by mythicalpoetic thought accepts experience and the possibilities of producing knowledge fostered by the opening for plurality, otherness and discentering of subjectivity.