Acquired ingenuity: the conflation of prudence with 'ingenio' in the works of Baltasar Gracián

Thesis

Critics of the works of Baltasar Gracián tend to fall into two camps: those who view his works as optimistic and religiously orthodox, due to his belief in the moral perfectibility of man and in the possibility of salvation after death, and those who view his works as pessimistic and secular, due to his belief in the meaninglessness of existence and in the inevitability that life terminate in nothingness. The critical stance of this thesis is that Gracián’s works are optimistic and religiously orthodox, and the argument of this thesis is that Gracián displays his Optimism and religious orthodoxy through his conceptualisation of the cardinal virtue of prudence as a form of ingenio; that is, a form of practical reason which can be honed through conscious and rational deliberation and practice, but which reaches its perfection when implemented instinctively, intuitively, and spontaneously. As such, man’s skills in the remit of implementing prudence, and therefore in realising virtue, have the potential to be perfected towards the aim of earning salvation after death. This argument rests upon an intertwining of the two strands of Gracián’s writing which are frequently examined separately by critics: his social and political works, often considered to concern themselves with worldly success (namely El Héroe, El Político, El Discreto, the Oráculo manual y arte de prudencia, and El Criticón), and his philosophical works, often considered to concern themselves with other-worldly matters (namely the Arte de ingenio, tratado de la agudeza/Agudeza y arte de ingenio and El Comulgatorio). By examining these two strands of Gracián’s writing together, this thesis shows that, in Jesuit fashion, Gracián considers the worldly and the other-worldly components of his thought as complementary, and that one of the primary ways in which this is manifest is through his conflation of the cardinal virtue of prudence with ingenio.

Authors: Beattie, R

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford