Calderon’s practical Idealism: From Descartes to Kant

Abstract

The article puts in relation Calderon with the modern philosophy. The methodical doubt of Descartes is compared with the dramatized disillusion of Calderon. Both ruin the supposed primary reality of the world, but Calderon comes, as Kant, to the affirmation of the freedom as original reality. But this affirmation has problems with the destiny or the fortune, the power of the father or of the King, the law of the honor or social pressure, and the divine omnipotence. Three strategies or ends show themselves then in the dramas of Calderon: the tragic failure, the worldly prudence and the religious dedication.