DOUBT AND THE TRANSGRESSIVE PATH: ANALYSIS OF A SCENE FROM THE MOVIE DOUBT

Abstract

According to Paris School Semiotics: Theory, doubt is defined as a modal category directly related to the epistemic modalities and the cognitive activities performed by the subject in order that he knows or understands something about his world. Moreover, Fontanille, in “Un point de vue sur ‘croire’ et ‘savoir’” (1982), delimits two universes of rationality, one concerning believing and the other knowing, and points out that doubt is a cognitive operation that belongs to the universe of believing, whereas the equivalent operation in the universe  of knowing is contestation. The author also states that these two universes presuppose just one cognitive subject, who is alternately susceptible to believing and knowing, and switches from one system to the other through a path of transgression. Therefore, using the semiotic notions of doubt and that of a path of transgression, this paper analyzes a four minute scene from the movie Doubt, by John Patrick Shanley, starred by Phillip Seymore Hoffman. The scene is constituted by father Flynn’s lecture, whose theme is doubt in religious practice and ethics.