Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Rationis DefensorLiterature and Truthfulness

Rationis Defensor: Literature and Truthfulness [How should we characterise the view that we can learn about the mind from literature? Should we say that such learning consists in acquiring knowledge of truths? That option is more attractive than it is sometimes made to seem by those who oppose propositional knowledge to practical knowledge or “knowing how”. But some writers on this topic—Lamarque and Olsen—argue that, while literature may express interesting propositions, it is not their truth that matters, but their “content”. Matters to what? To literary criticism, they reply: there is no place in criticism for “debate about the truth or falsity of general statements about human life or the human condition.” I argue, to the contrary, that ideas of truth and truthfulness are woven into the fabric of a kind of criticism that is widespread now and comes with a long and distinguished history.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

Rationis DefensorLiterature and Truthfulness

Part of the Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Book Series (volume 28)
Editors: Maclaurin, James
Currie, Gregory
Rationis Defensor — Mar 14, 2012
Download PDF
9 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer-journals/rationis-defensor-literature-and-truthfulness-2tz5nBkdyi

References (18)

Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Copyright
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012
ISBN
978-94-007-3982-6
Pages
23 –31
DOI
10.1007/978-94-007-3983-3_3
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[How should we characterise the view that we can learn about the mind from literature? Should we say that such learning consists in acquiring knowledge of truths? That option is more attractive than it is sometimes made to seem by those who oppose propositional knowledge to practical knowledge or “knowing how”. But some writers on this topic—Lamarque and Olsen—argue that, while literature may express interesting propositions, it is not their truth that matters, but their “content”. Matters to what? To literary criticism, they reply: there is no place in criticism for “debate about the truth or falsity of general statements about human life or the human condition.” I argue, to the contrary, that ideas of truth and truthfulness are woven into the fabric of a kind of criticism that is widespread now and comes with a long and distinguished history.]

Published: Mar 14, 2012

Keywords: Human Nature; Positive View; Literary Criticism; Literary Work; Literary Representation

There are no references for this article.