Cervantes' 'Don Quixote' and the quarrel between philosophy and poetry

Cervantes' Don Quixote and the Quarrel Between Philosophy and Poetry examines the Platonic account of the differences between the philosophic and poetic educations and Cervantes' contribution to the millenary debate that has developed around this account. The dissertation argues that Don Quixote is Cervantes' contribution to this debate and attempts to demonstrate to what extent he opposes Plato's perspective and particular political objectives. The argument is grounded on a philosophical investigation of some of the literary techniques used in the writings of earlier philosophers and poets, techniques that form part both of an autonomous language of communication between certain writers and their readers and also part of the education of a specific moral character. And it proposes to show that the most important condition for discerning the genesis and development of philosophy and the desire to philosophize is the moral education provided by its poets and their imaginative works.