Date of Award
Spring 6-15-2025
Document Type
Thesis (Undergraduate)
Department
Comparative Literature
First Advisor
Dr. Patrick Glauthier
Second Advisor
Dr. Klaus Mladek
Abstract
The philosophical systems of Plato and Lucretius use the religious experience to compel readers into their distinct philosophical versions of reality. This compulsion is necessary for philosophy. This study’s three philosophical systems reappropriate this experience from the existing structures of religion to violently produce conviction in readers. The religious experience is not window dressing over the arguments of the philosophical systems, but a necessary component that reorients the audience into a new discursive reality. Ultimately, the philosophers we examine will show how the knowledge structure of philosophy becomes able to grip the audience, consuming them into its reality – how philosophy became fanged.
Recommended Citation
Dunford, Lukas A., "The Fangs of Philosophy: Religious Experience as a Persuasive Device" (2025). Comparative Literature Undergraduate Senior Theses. 56.
https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/complit_senior_theses/56
Included in
Ancient Philosophy Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, History of Philosophy Commons
