Chivalry in the structure of medieval society: socio-philosophical analysis (by the example of Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales”)

We reconstructed a hierarchical structure of English medieval society in XIV century and defined the role of chivalry in it. On the base of “The Canterbury Tales” feudalism can be presented as “a system of personal relations” (according to J. Le Goff). Such an approach opposes the analysis of the given type of society as an economic structure, which is featured in social philosophy (classical Marxism), and at the same time supplements it. We elaborated the evolution of chivalry on the base of changes of its three states: military knight – squire (court knight) – chivalry as a title. We presented economic reasons for degradation of traditional chivalry as a particularly military class (fief separation). We drew a conclusion concerning relevance of using references during society transition states analysis

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