Don-Juanism: Value Dispositions, Preferences, Manners

Abstract

ABSTRACT Don Juanism is a type of consciousness, value system, and mode of behavior specific to amorous–erotic relationships. It reflects an overall image of Don Juan as presented in Molière’s famous comedy Dom Juan ou le Festin de Pierre and in many other works of art. This image is internally bifurcated and interpreted in various ways in cultural history. On the one hand, Don Juan is known as a gallant suitor, an affectionate philanderer, a virtuoso of pleasure, and a ladies’ man, thus justifying our perception of Don Juan in relation to the art of love. On the other hand, Don Juan is seen as a rake, a seducer, a destroyer of women’s hearts, and a disaster to husbands, in which case Don Juan symbolizes willfulness and profligacy. The two sides of the Don Juan image developed in two different symbolic contexts: the former in the amorous–erotic context and the latter in the moral–ethical context. The main feature of Don-Juanist’s amorous–erotic connotations is that they are actualized precisely in relation to courtly gallantry, a woman’s expectations of a knight, the romantic cavalier, the wonderful lover. Don Juanism does not, however, withstand scrutiny from the standpoint of philosophy and wisdom of love, where desire for integrity and perfection, generosity and devotion, are foregrounded in relationships. However, philosophy of love finds itself in a difficult situation when faced with Don Juanism: at least one of its sides is relevant to the understanding of love that is most popular among ordinary people, where love is a romantic–erotic experience that reflects sensual lust, and uniting in love is definitely understood in the sexual sense, as intercourse.