The Epistemology of the Parrot

Abstract

This article presents a reading of “Un cœur simple” from a perspective that brings together the philosophy of stupidity, the animal, and religion. Focusing on the links between stupidity and irony, it proposes that Félicité’s fusion of God and the parrot implies a hermeneutical grid that sees religion as parrotry, insofar as her transcendence depends upon the idea of God as purveyor of non-referential language. In “Un cœur simple,” irony operates within the problem that a judgment of stupidity poses: judging someone stupid becomes a stupid judgment.