Disguise and Dupery in the maxims of La Rochefoucauld

Abstract

In this paper we analyse the Moral Maxim of La Rochefoucauld “Mind is always the dupe of heart”. We try to clarify the concept of “heart” by doing an analysis of the ways the unconscious part of the mind may work and by researching what we understand by “body” (tempers, passions) and its relation with the concept of “heart”. The opposition between the mind and the heart is studied as a form of “legislations” (which are against each other) and the way its appeasement is reached.