STUDIA UBB PHILOLOGIA, LVI, 2, 2011 LATTAQUE RATIONALISTE CONTRE LES UTOPIES DE LAGE CLASSIQUE CORIN BRAGA 1 ABSTRACT. The Rationalist Attack Against Utopias of the Classical Age. The philosophers of the Classical Age vehemently criticised the imagination. They thought it was the source of all errors and illusions in human cognition. Their attack lead to the depreciation of all literary genres which were based on the marvels and miracles, on the fantastic tradition of the Middle Age and the Renaissance, such as the extraordinary and the utopian voyages. If at its beginning the utopian genre was conceived as a witty fiction nourished by a pleasant fantasy, after the attack of the Cartesian rationalist philosophers, it acquired the meaning of impossible project, faked fiction, forgery. Keywords: Fantasy, Imagination, Utopia, Rationalism, Cartesian philosophy, illusion. REZUMAT. Atacul raionalist mpotriva utopiilor epocii clasice. Filosofii epocii clasice au criticat vehement imaginaia, pe care o considerau sursa tuturor erorilor i iluziilor n cogniia uman. Atacul lor a dus la deprecierea tuturor genurilor literare care se bazau pe minuni i miracole, pe tradiia fantastic a Evului Mediu i a Renaterii, cum ar fi cltoriile extraordinare i utopiile. Dac la nceputurile sale genul utopic a fost conceput ca o ficiune spiritual alimentat de o fantezie plcut, dup atacul lansat de filosofii raionaliti cartezieni, termenul de utopie a dobndit semnificaia de proiect imposibil, ficiune, himer, fals. Cuvinte cheie: fantezie, imaginaie, utopie, raionalism, filosofie cartezian, iluzie. Au dØbut du XVIII e siLcle, Shaftesbury critiquait le goßt public pour sa disponibilitØ daccepter les « mØmoires de voyage » sans aucun discernement. Le penchant pour ce type de littØrature est si fort, se plaint le lord, que, indØpendamment du gØnie de lauteur et de la valeur de luvre, le lecteur est, dLs les premiLres pages, disposØ  se laisser entraner dans les fictions quon lui prØsente. « Remplis de dØsirs et despØrances », philosophes, femmes ou jeunes gens, tous sont prŒts  suivre le narrateur dans ses rencontres parfaitement implausibles avec des bŒtes et des poissons Ønormes, avec des hommes monstrueux et des situations fausses et artificielles 2 . 1 Babes-Boyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, E-mail: corinbraga@yahoo.com 2 « And thus, full of Desire and Hope, we accompany him, till he enters on his great Scene of Action, and begins by the description of some enormous Fish or Beast. From monstrous Brutes he proceeds to get more Monstrous Men. For in this race of Authors he is ever compleatest, and of the first Rank, who is able to speak of things the most unnatural and monstrous Monsters and