Paranoia and Modernity: Cervantes to Rousseau

Abstract

Agent and other -- The responsible knight -- The knight errant -- Luther and the devil's world -- The terrors of reform -- The science of suspicion -- The demons of Descartes and Hobbes -- Pascal and power -- The art of polite disguise -- Swift and the satiric absolute -- A flight from humanity -- Invisible agents -- Rousseau's great plot -- An attempted escape -- Epilogue : paranoia and postmodernism.