tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post8038110951616654071..comments2024-03-28T19:14:33.619-07:00Comments on The Splintered Mind: Fiction and SkepticismEric Schwitzgebelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11541402189204286449noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-80893585913433712082013-09-30T11:10:43.696-07:002013-09-30T11:10:43.696-07:00Thanks for the kind comment, Nick.
Callan: I'...Thanks for the kind comment, Nick.<br /><br />Callan: I'd be disappointed because I'd like to think that fiction doesn't simply stand to exposition as showing does to telling, and that it does more than show how intellectual material connects to things we care about. For example, for the skeptic, fiction might be a way of evading the paradox of skeptical assertion; and maybe it does some opening up of possibilities that exposition cannot as easily do....Eric Schwitzgebelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11541402189204286449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-68621365064885460442013-09-29T18:47:46.713-07:002013-09-29T18:47:46.713-07:00Eric, you'd be disappointed? Why? You leave me...Eric, you'd be disappointed? Why? You leave me very curious!?Callan S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/15373053356095440571noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-52262703670811435432013-09-28T12:32:10.572-07:002013-09-28T12:32:10.572-07:00For what it's worth: I enjoy most of your shor...For what it's worth: I enjoy most of your short fiction pieces much more than any Borge piece I have yet to read. I hope you compile them someday. Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10992458507944205149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-34192626554571669982013-09-26T11:54:01.753-07:002013-09-26T11:54:01.753-07:00"It's fun to write, and I have tenure&quo..."It's fun to write, and I have tenure"<br /><br />This made my day.Jorge A.https://www.blogger.com/profile/02382191206864285204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-39802519549486038782013-09-26T08:55:05.176-07:002013-09-26T08:55:05.176-07:00Thanks for the comments, Anon & Callan.
Anon:...Thanks for the comments, Anon & Callan.<br /><br />Anon: I'm inclined to agree with some of that -- especially about it's being a beginning, a way into think about possibilities one isn't quite ready to take fully seriously in expository prose. But I'm inclined to think that rather than "eradicat[ing] the possibility of thinking beyond bounds", it starts to enable it. For the skeptic, too, I'm inclined to think, it's very difficult to press forward *past* the beginning.<br /><br />Callan: That seems clearly right. And yet if that were the only thing fiction could do for philosophy, I would be disappointed!Eric Schwitzgebelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11541402189204286449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-43361204402570825892013-09-25T17:19:34.439-07:002013-09-25T17:19:34.439-07:00Fiction grounds intellectualism in what we care ab...Fiction grounds intellectualism in what we care about. It's like the difference between showing a very complicated equation and telling a story of a nuked city - the equation is what's involved with the incredible burst of energy. But what we care about is not really there in the equation, is it?Callan S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/15373053356095440571noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-10727245150874252492013-09-25T15:34:17.624-07:002013-09-25T15:34:17.624-07:00Fiction serves, as a former mentor of mine once sa...Fiction serves, as a former mentor of mine once said, much like Descartes did once for science - a hero and a goat. It moves part of truth forward in an acceptable way when the world is not quite ready, and unfortunately, sets aside another truth that is desperately needed as that - truth, rather than mockery. It does truly involve the brain in perceptions of possibility, and leaves a possible world quite viable. But, in essence of claiming itself to be fiction, it eradicates the real possibility of thinking beyond bounds, as Einstein taught us all we must do. Fiction is what it is - a beginning.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com