Individualism, rationalism and pre-comprehension as conditions of emergence of law in Robinson Crusoe

Abstract

This article aims to explore the emergence of law in a space characterized by isolation, by having as its conditions the individualism, rationalism, and precomprehension of the hero’s world in Daniel Defoe’s novel, Robinson Crusoe. The historical, social, and philosophical horizon of seventeenth-century England, centered on individual egocentrism and rational thought, combined with Lukács, Watt, and Gumbrecht’s theoretical contributions about the condition of the individual subject and modern subjectivity, has the power to provide an adequate interpretation of meanings from the literary text and important reflections on the transition from the primitive state to the civilized state.