The Apotheosis of Self-Reflection

Philosophers typically attribute the foundation of modern thought to René Descartes, who in his Discours de la méthode (1637) extensively deploys metaphors of “founding” for his theory of how the edifice of knowledge is regrounded on the clear and distinct certainty of the cogito: “I think, therefore I am.” Cultural historians sometimes locate a remoter starting point for modernity in Luther and in the Protestant Reformation. There, too, modernity is about establishing the individual self and its own free power of reflection, in the mirror of conscience, as the basis of a life lived in relation to the absolutes of divine grace and Scriptural revelation.

Although less a commonplace in intellectual history, Dante already reveals an antecedent discovery of what emerged as modern self-reflexivity. The Convivio (especially Book III) theorizes philosophy as essentially a form of self-reflection, while the first person protagonist of the Divine Comedy enacts this self-reflexivity in every dimension of his human and historical existence. The narrative and especially the lyrical art of poetry itself turns language into an essentially self-reflective medium. Of course, even earlier contenders vie for this distinction, such as the so-called twelfth-century Renaissance emanating from the School of Chartres. We can trace the theme of self-reflection back further still to the “Axial Age,” as an ancient (first millennium BCE) founding of “modern” humanity, in an even broader sense of critical, self-reflexive thought.

Dante serves as a focal point in the middle of this trajectory for contemplating the stakes of self-reflection as a revolutionary, epoch-making turn of consciousness. The apotheosis of self-consciousness in Dante links with a new secular outlook and attitude, our inescapable heritage today, yet also with a theological vision that lies more in our past—though perhaps also in our future. This historical perspective provides the backdrop for examining some of the remarkable operations of self-reflexive thought and language in Dante’s writing.