Literature and philosophical progress

Eileen John

pp. 17-40

in: Francesco Campana, Mario Farina (eds), Philosophy and literature, Metodo 6 (1), 2018.

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of how literary andphilosophical thinking can converge in experience of a literary work. Peter Lamarque and Stein Haugom Olsen, in Truth, Fiction, and Literature,dispute this possibility, and this discussion responds to their view, withparticular attention to their account of thematic interpretation. Thematicinterpretation is presented here as involving thought about the reasonsbehind a work’s use of its content and other features. Those reasons havean implicit generality that allows us to move from literary specificity togeneral, philosophically significant thought. Philosophy’s need for thekind of thinking supported by literature, exploring pa