La fable, parangon de la poésie morale ? L'exemple paradoxal de La Fontaine

After defining the fable as a moral genre which is fundamentally poetic, because it is fundamentally metaphorical, we draw a distinction in La Fontaine’s fables between a flatly “prescriptive” morality and a more meditative “descriptive” lesson. We propose a reassessment of the ethical scope of the former by drawing two connections: with Descartes’ morale par provision, and with Molière’s comedy.