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Philosophy and literature involves theliterary treatment ofphilosophers andphilosophical themes (the literature of philosophy), and the philosophical treatment of issues raised by literature (the philosophy of literature).
The philosophy of literature, a subset ofaesthetics, examines the nature of art and the significance of verbal arts, often overlooked in traditional aesthetic discussions. It raises philosophical questions about narrative, empathy, and ethics through fictional characters. Philosophers like Plato critiqued literature's ethical influence, while modern thinkers explore language's role in bridging minds and the truth in fiction, differentiating between the reality of characters andtheir narratives.
Strictly speaking, the philosophy of literature is a branch ofaesthetics, the branch of philosophy that deals with the question, "What isart"? Much of aesthetic philosophy has traditionally focused on the plastic arts ormusic, however, at the expense of the verbal arts. Much traditional discussion of aesthetic philosophy seeks to establish criteria of artistic quality that are indifferent to the subject matter being depicted. Since all literary works, almost by definition, contain notional content, aesthetic theories that rely on purely formal qualities tend to overlook literature.
The very existence ofnarrative raises philosophical issues. In narrative, a creator can embody, and readers be led to imagine,fictional characters, and evenfantastic creatures or technologies. The ability of the human mind to imagine, and even to experienceempathy with, these fictional characters is itself revealing about the nature of the human mind. Some fiction can be thought of as a sort of athought experiment inethics: it describes fictional characters, theirmotives, their actions, and the consequences of their actions. It is in this light that some philosophers have chosen various narrative forms to teach their philosophy (see below).
Plato, for instance, believed that literary culture had a strong impact on the ethical outlook of its consumers. InThe Republic, Plato displays a strong hostility to the contents of the culture of his period, and proposes a strongcensorship of popular literature in hisutopia.
More recently, however, philosophers of various stripes have taken different and less hostile approaches to literature. Since the work of theBritish Empiricists andImmanuel Kant in the late eighteenth century, Western philosophy has long been preoccupied with a fundamental question ofepistemology: the relationship between ideas in the human mind and the external world, if such a world exists. In more recent years, these epistemological concerns have shifted toward an extended discussion ofwords and meaning, exploring the possibility oflanguage bridging the gap between minds. This cluster of issues concerning the meaning of language and "writings" is sometimes referred to asthelinguistic turn.
As such, techniques and tools developed forliterary criticism andliterary theory rose to greater prominence in Western philosophy of the late twentieth century. Philosophers of various stripes paid more attention to literature than their predecessors did. Some sought to examine the question of whether it was in fact truly possible to communicate using words, whether it was possible for an author's intended meaning to be communicated to a reader. Others sought to use literary works as examples of contemporaryculture, and sought to reveal unconscious attitudes they felt present in these works for social criticism.
Literary works also pose issues concerningtruth and thephilosophy of language. In educated opinion, at least, it is commonly reputed as true thatSherlock Holmes lived in London. (see David Lewis 'Truth in Fiction', American Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 15. No. 1, January 1978) It is also considered true thatSamuel Pepys lived in London. Yet Sherlock Holmes never lived anywhere at all; he is a fictional character. Samuel Pepys, contrarily, is judged to have been a real person. Contemporary interests in Holmes and Pepys share strong similarities; the only reason why anyone knows either of their names is because of an abiding interest in reading about their alleged deeds and words. These two statements would appear to belong to two different orders of truth. Further problems arise concerning thetruth value of statements about fictional worlds and characters that can be implied but are nowhere explicitly stated by the sources for our knowledge about them, such asSherlock Holmes had only one head orSherlock Holmes never traveled to the moon.
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Severalpoets have written poems on philosophical themes, and some important philosophers have expressed their philosophy in verse. Thecosmogony ofHesiod and theDe Rerum Natura ofLucretius are important philosophical poems. The genre ofepic poetry was also used to teach philosophy.Vyasa narrated the ancientIndian epicMahabharata in order to teachIndian philosophy andHindu philosophy.Homer also presented some philosophical teachings in hisOdyssey.
Many of theEastern philosophers worked out their thought in a poetical fashion. Some of the important names include:
Notable Westernphilosophical poets include:
Some philosophers have undertaken to write philosophy in the form offiction, including novels and short stories (see separate article onphilosophical fiction). This is apparent early on in the literature of philosophy, where philosophers such asPlato wrotedialogues in which fictional or fictionalized characters discuss philosophical subjects;Socrates frequently appears as a protagonist in Plato's dialogues, and the dialogues are one of the prime sources of knowledge about Socrates' teaching, though at this remove it is sometimes hard to distinguish Socrates' actual positions from Plato's own. Numerous early Christian writers, includingAugustine,Boethius, andPeter Abelard produced dialogues; several early modern philosophers, such asGeorge Berkeley andDavid Hume, wrote occasionally in this genre.
Some philosophers have turned to storytelling to convey their teachings. The 12th centuryIslamic philosopherIbn Tufayl wrote a fictionalArabic narrativeHayy ibn Yaqdhan as a response toal-Ghazali'sThe Incoherence of the Philosophers; the 13th centuryIslamic theologian-philosopherIbn al-Nafis later wrote a fictional narrativeTheologus Autodidactus as a response to Ibn Tufayl's work. The German philosopherFriedrich Nietzsche often articulated his ideas in literary modes, most notably inThus Spoke Zarathustra, a re-imagined account of the teachings ofZoroaster.Marquis de Sade andAyn Rand wrote novels in which characters served as mouthpieces for philosophical positions, and acted by them in the plot.George Santayana was also a philosopher who wrote novels and poetry; the relationship between Santayana's characters and his beliefs is more complex. Theexistentialists include among their numbers importantFrench authors who used fiction to convey their philosophical views; these includeJean-Paul Sartre's novelNausea and playNo Exit, andAlbert Camus'sThe Stranger.Maurice Blanchot's entire fictional production, whose titles includeThe Step Not Beyond,The Madness of the Day, andThe Writing of Disaster, among others, constitutes an indispensable corpus for the treatment of the relationship between philosophy and literature. So doesJacques Derrida'sThe Post Card: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond.
Several philosophers have had an important influence on literature.Arthur Schopenhauer, largely as a result of hissystem of aesthetics, is perhaps the most influential recent philosopher in the history of literature;Thomas Hardy's later novels frequently allude to Schopenhauerian themes, particularly inJude the Obscure. Schopenhauer also had an important influence onJoseph Conrad. Schopenhauer also had a less specific but more widely diffused influence on theSymbolist movement in European literature.Lionel Johnson also refers to Schopenhauer's aesthetics in his essayThe Cultured Faun.Jacques Derrida's entire oeuvre has been hugely influential for so-called continental philosophy and the understanding of the role of literature in modernity.
Other works of fiction considered to have philosophical content include:
Several philosophers are read for the literary merits of their works apart from their philosophical content. The philosophy in theMeditations of theRoman emperorMarcus Aurelius is unoriginalStoicism, but theMeditations are still read for their literary merit and for the insight they give into the workings of the emperor's mind.
Arthur Schopenhauer's philosophy is noted for the quality and readability of its prose, as are some of the works of theBritish Empiricists, such asLocke and Hume.Søren Kierkegaard's style is frequently regarded as poetic artistry as well as philosophical, especially inFear and Trembling andEither/Or.Friedrich Nietzsche's works such asThus Spoke Zarathustra frequently resembleprose poetry and contain imagery and allusion instead of argument.
Socrates appears in a highly fictionalized guise, as a comic figure and the object of mockery, inThe Clouds byAristophanes. In the play, Socrates appears hanging from a basket, where he delivers oracles such as:
EarlyTaoist philosopherZhuang Zhou expressed his ideas primarily through short literary anecdotes and fables such as "Dream of the Butterfly".[1][2] The other major philosophers of the time appear as characters within these stories, allowing Zhuangzi to playfully explore their ideas and contrast them with his own, as he does withLaozi,Liezi,Hui Shi, and many others. Most prominently in his work is the presence ofConfucius and his prominent disciples, who are sometimes used to undermine popular understandings of Confucian philosophy or to reinforce Zhuangzi's own understanding of how one lives by the Dao.
Jorge Luis Borges is perhaps the twentieth century's preeminent author of philosophical fiction. He wrote a short story in which the philosopherAverroes is the chief protagonist,Averroes's Search.[3] Many plot points in his stories paraphrase the thought of philosophers, includingGeorge Berkeley,Arthur Schopenhauer, andBertrand Russell; he also attributes various opinions to figures includingGeorge Dalgarno.[4]
A key plot point inUmberto Eco's novelThe Name of the Rose turns on the discovery of a mysterious book that turns out to contain a lost manuscript byAristotle. Eco's later novelFoucault's Pendulum became the forerunner of a run ofthrillers ordetective fiction that toss around learned allusions and the names of historical thinkers; more recent examples includeDan Brown'sThe Da Vinci Code andThe Rule of Four byIan Caldwell andDustin Thomason.
Also,Philip K. Dick, who has often been compared to Borges, raises a significant number of philosophical issues in his novels, everything from the problem ofsolipsism to many questions ofperception andreality.
Jorge Luis Borges introduces many philosophical themes, and several fictional philosophers, in hisshort stories.[5] A fictional philosophical movement is a part of the premise of his storyTlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, and the unnamed narrator of his storyThe Library of Babel could also be called a fictional philosopher.[6] A fictionaltheologian is the subject of his storyThree Versions of Judas.
Fictional philosophers occasionally occur throughout the works ofRobert A. Heinlein andRay Bradbury. Heinlein'sStranger in a Strange Land contains long passages that could be considered successors to the fictionalized philosophical dialogues of the ancient world, set within the plot.[7]
