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Sor Filotea De La Cruz Analysis

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There is no way to know everything there is to know. This means that knowledge will always be inherently limited by numerous different factors. According to DesCartes, knowing can only be applied to what one has clearly observed to be true (111). Observable knowledge can be limited by things such as background and sex. However, the greatest limitation may be lack of skepticism, whether it be questioning oneself or an authority. If a person does not know they are unknowledgable, it is because they did not question it to begin with. By contrasting limitations at work in excerpts from Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko, The Poet’s Answer to the Most Illustrious Sor Filotea de la Cruz by Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz, and Rene Descartes’ Discourse of Method, the range of knowledge throughout the pieces can be compared. Prince Oroonoko, the least knowledgeable with respect to Western knowledge of the time, is limited by his own lack of skepticism. Secondly Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz is quite knowledgeable, but limited by her gender. Leaving Rene Descartes (maybe the most knowledgeable) to only be limited by his own questions of what can be considered knowledge.
In the beginning, Prince Oroonoko is praised for knowing “almost as much as if he had read much”, …show more content…

Possibly the most knowledgeable of the three, DesCartes is most concerned with “seeking the true method of arriving at a knowledge of everything” (110). DesCartes is so particular about making sure the knowledge he does have is actual knowledge, that he creates a method to being skeptical (111). He discerns that the only barrier to knowledge is what you haven’t seen or experienced to clearly be true. According to the French thinker, we know we exist, God exist, and that what we know comes through self observation and observation of others. Under these circumstances, there is no real limitation except to got out and learn what is

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