Articles
2012.07.12 14:46

Is Philosophy Literature?

(*.104.48.44) 조회 수 63651 추천 수 0 댓글 0
?

단축키

Prev이전 문서

Next다음 문서

크게 작게 위로 아래로 댓글로 가기 인쇄
?

단축키

Prev이전 문서

Next다음 문서

크게 작게 위로 아래로 댓글로 가기 인쇄

Is Philosophy Literature?

By JIM HOLT


Today, analytic philosophy has a broader scope than it used to. (Many of its qualities were examined in a previous post in this series by Gary Gutting, “Bridging the 
Analytic-Continental Divide.”) It’s less obsessed with dissecting language; it’s more continuous with the sciences. (This is partly due to the American philosopher Willard Quine, who argued that language really has no fixed system of meanings for philosophers to analyze.) Yet whether they are concerned with the nature of consciousness, of space-time or of the good life, analytic philosophers continue to lay heavy stress on logical rigor in their writings. The result, according to Martha Nussbaum (herself a sometime member of the tribe), is a prevailing style that is “correct, scientific, abstract, hygienically pallid” — a style meant to serve as “a kind of all-purpose solvent.” Timothy Williamson, the current occupant of the illustrious Wykeham Chair of Logic at Oxford, makes a virtue of the “long haul of technical reflection” that is analytic philosophy today. Does it bore you? Well, he says, too bad. “Serious philosophy is always likely to bore those with short attention-spans.”

@Analytic-Continental Divide
                  @obsess: keep thinking about it and find it difficult to think about anything else
                  @rigor: rigidity

This kind of philosophy, whatever its intellectual merits, doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun. And it doesn’t sound like literature.

But what is literature? That in itself might appear to be a philosophical question. Yet the most persuasive answer, to my mind, was supplied by a novelist, Evelyn Waugh. (Well, not just a novelist — also the most 
versatile master of English prose in the last 100 years.) “Literature,” Waugh declared, “is the right use of language irrespective of the subject or reason of utterance.” Something doesn’t have to rhyme or tell a story to be considered literature. Even a VCR instruction manual might qualify, or a work of analytic philosophy. (Waugh, as it happens, was not a fan of analytic philosophy, dismissing it as “a parlor game of logical quibbles.”)

@versatile: competent
@rhyme: if one word rhymes with another, they have a very similar sound
@parlor: shop
@quibble: argue

And what is “the right use of language”? What distinguishes literature from mere communication, or sheer trash? Waugh had an answer to this too. “Lucidity, elegance, individuality”: these are the three essential traits that make a work of prose “memorable and unmistakable,” that make it literature.

So how does the writing of professional philosophers of the past 100 years or so fare in the light of these three criteria? Well, it gets high marks for lucidity — which, by the way, it not the same thing as simplicity, or easy intelligibility. (Think of Henry James.) Some prominent analytic philosophers can be 
turbid in their writing, even preposterously so — the recently deceased Michael Dummett, an admirable thinker in so many other ways, comes to mind. Yet precision of expression is, among their ranks, far more honored in the observance than in the breach. Indeed, it’s something of a professional fetish (and not a bad guide to truth).

@turbid: muddy or opaque, as a liquid clouded with a suspension of particles.
cf)opague 
ó transparent
@preposterously: unreasonable and foolish

Individuality? Here too analytic philosophers, the greatest of them anyway, shine. Stylistically speaking, there is no mistaking Willard Quine (spare, polished, elaborately lucid) for, say, Elizabeth Anscombe (painstakingimperious). Or David K. Lewis (colloquially natural, effortlessly clever) for John Searle (formidable, patient, sardonic). Or Thomas Nagel (intricately nuanced, rich in negative capability) for Philippa Foot (dry, ironically homely, droll).

@painstaking: extremely carefully and and thoroughly
@imperious: have a proud manner and expect to be obeyed
@colloquial: informal and are used mainly in conversation

Finally, we come to elegance. This honorific has been overused to the point of meaningless, but Waugh had something definite in mind by it: “Elegance is the quality in a work of art which imparts direct pleasure.” And pleasure, though by no means an infallible guide to literary value, is (as W.H. Auden observed) the least fallible guide. What does it mean to take pleasure in a piece of prose? Is there a sort of tingle you feel as you read it? That can’t very well be, since then it would be the tingle you were enjoying, not the prose. (And wouldn’t such a tingle distract you from your reading?) Oddly, one of the most pleasurable pieces of analytic philosophy I’ve come across is itself an article entitled “Pleasure,” where, in a mere nine pages, all the reigning understandings of pleasure are gently deflated. Its author, the Oxford philosopher Gilbert Ryle (1900-76), was among the dominant figures in mid-century analytic philosophy. He was also a supremely graceful prose stylist, the coiner of phrases like “the ghost in the machine,” and, not incidentally, avotary of Jane Austen. (Asked if he ever read novels, Ryle was reputed to have replied, “Oh yes — all six, every year.”)

@infallible: never wrong
@tingle: have a slight stinging feeling there
@reigning: recent winner of a contest or competition at the time you are talking about
@votary: a person who has dedicated himself or herself to religion by talking vows

Ryle may head the hedonic honor roll of analytic philosophy, but the roll is a long one. It includes all the philosophers I named above — especially Quine, whose classic article “On What There Is” can be read over and over again, like a poem. It also includes the Harvard philosopher Hilary Putnam, whose logical lump is leavened by a relaxed command of language and a gift for imaginative thought experiments. It includes younger philosophers (well, younger than 65) like Kwame Anthony Appiah and Colin McGinn — both of whom, in addition to their technical and not-so-technical philosophical work, have written novels. (One of Appiah’s is a philosophical murder-mystery bearing the title, “Another Death in Venice.”) And it certainly includes Bertrand Russell, who was actually awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature — although not, I hasten to add, for his work on Principia Mathematica.

@lump: a solid piece of it
@leavened: be made more interesting or cheerful

Literary pleasures can turn up even in the most seemingly abstruse reaches of analytic philosophy. Take the case of Saul Kripke — widely (though not unanimously) considered the one true genius in the profession today. Kripke’s work can be dauntingly technical. The first volume of his collected papers, recently published by Oxford University Press under the arresting title “Philosophical Troubles,” will be a treasure trove to his fellow philosophers of logic and language, but it is not for the casual reader. However, an earlier work of his, the revolutionary “Naming and Necessity,” is so lucidly, inventively and even playfully argued that even a newcomer to analytic philosophy will find it hard to put down. The book is actually a transcription of three lectures Kripke gave, extemporaneously and without notes, at Princeton in January 1970 — hence its lovely conversational tone.

@abstruse: difficult to understand, especially when you think it could be explained more simply
@extemporaneously: spoken, performed without planning or prepartion

Ranging over deep matters like metaphysical necessity, the a priori and the mind-body problem, Kripke proceeds by way of a dazzling series of examples involving Salvador Dalí and Sir Walter Scott, the standard meter stick in Paris, Richard Nixon (plus David Frye’s impersonation of him), and an identity-like logical relation Kripke calls “schmidentity.” There is not a dogmatic or pompous word in the lectures — and not a dull one either. Kripke the analytic philosopher reveals himself to be a literary stylist of the first water (just as, say, Richard Feynman the physicist did). The reader more than forgives Kripke when he remarks at one point, apropos of his unwillingness to give a thoroughly worked-out theory of reference, “I’m sort of too lazy at the moment.”

@metaphysics: a part of philosophy concern with understanding reality and developing theories about what exist and how we know that it exists
@priori: is based on an assumed principal or fact, rather than on actual observed facts
@dazzling: very impressive and beautiful
@schmidentity: In Naming and Necessity, Saul Kripke employs a handy philosophical trick: he invents the term ‘schmidentity’ to argue indirectly for his favored account of identity.
@pompous: they behave or speak in a very serious way because they think they are more important than they really are

?

  1. No Image

    Fish Adjusts Its Shape to Lure Hungry Females

    Fish Adjusts Its Shape to Lure Hungry Females By NICHOLAS BAKALAR Published: July 16, 2012 The male of a small freshwater fish, the swordtail characin, tempts females with an ornamental lure that looks like food. Females react by biting at the stalk t...
    Date2012.07.19 CategoryArticles Views72236
    Read More
  2. No Image

    New partnership raises US stake in Afghanistan

    New partnership raises US stake in Afghanistan By Arthur I. Cyr In a surprise July 7 visit to Kabul, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that Afghanistan and the United States are now formal allies. This new relationship goes beyond th...
    Date2012.07.19 CategoryArticles Views11759
    Read More
  3. No Image

    May 9, 2012 - Terror Plot Foiled

    Terror Plot Foiled Aired May 9, 2012 - 04:00:00 ET MADISON WATKINS (ph): Hi, my name is Madison Watkins (ph), 11th grader at Fayetteville High School in Fayetteville, Arkansas. My favorite teacher is Ms. Burnett (ph), because she`s always willing to h...
    Date2012.07.19 CategoryCNN Students News Views21294
    Read More
  4. No Image

    A Mix of Hope and Fear as Mongolia Grows Rich

    A Mix of Hope and Fear as Mongolia Grows Rich By DAN LEVIN Published: July 15, 2012 ULAN BATOR, Mongolia — Three kinds of foreigners, they say, prowl the world’s energy frontiers: missionaries, misfits and mercenaries. @prowl: moves around an area qui...
    Date2012.07.16 CategoryArticles Views55828
    Read More
  5. No Image

    Korea’s weak currency strategy

    Korea’s weak currency strategy By John Burton The value of the Korean won continues to fall and is soon likely to breach the threshold of 1,200 to the U.S. dollar. Hail to the almighty weak won. @hail: to describe someone or something as being very go...
    Date2012.07.16 CategoryArticles Views6946
    Read More
  6. No Image

    Small Is So Beautiful

    Small Is So Beautiful By GAIL COLLINS Published: July 11, 2012 Our subject for today is the care and feeding of small businesses. “I love you guys,” Mitt Romney told a teleconference hosted by the National Federation of Independent Business. “I love t...
    Date2012.07.13 CategoryArticles Views18059
    Read More
  7. No Image

    Cold War Shadows

    Cold War Shadows By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS ― Shadows of the Cold War returned to the U.N. during the recent elections for President of the General Assembly where a previously agreed to candidate from Lithuania was challenged, and subsequently ...
    Date2012.07.13 CategoryArticles Views10536
    Read More
  8. No Image

    May 11, 2012 - Election Results from France and Greece; Shaquille O`Neal`s Favorite Teacher

    Election Results from France and Greece; Shaquille O`Neal`s Favorite Teacher Aired May 11, 2012 - 04:00:00 ET SHAQUILLE O`NEAL, FORMER NBA PLAYER: Hi, I`m Dr. Shaquille O`Neal, and you`re watching CNN Student News. CARL AZUZ, HOST, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Y...
    Date2012.07.13 CategoryCNN Students News Views69509
    Read More
  9. No Image

    May 14, 2012 - Greek Government Troubles; Spain`s Economic Woes

    Greek Government Troubles; Spain`s Economic Woes Aired May 14, 2012 - 04:00:00 ET CARL AZUZ, HOST, CNN STUDENT NEWS: A lost and found story that takes place in the world`s largest desert. The details on that are coming up as we kick off a new week of ...
    Date2012.07.12 CategoryCNN Students News Views26983
    Read More
  10. No Image

    Is Philosophy Literature?

    Is Philosophy Literature? By JIM HOLT Today, analytic philosophy has a broader scope than it used to. (Many of its qualities were examined in a previous post in this series by Gary Gutting, “Bridging the Analytic-Continental Divide.”) It’s less obsess...
    Date2012.07.12 CategoryArticles Views63651
    Read More
  11. No Image

    Life after Darwin

    Life after Darwin By Didier Raoult MARSEILLE ― Many Greek philosophers perceived the world to be in perpetual motion ― a process of constant evolution. In Charles Darwin’s world, however, creationism set the rules for science. So, underpinning his the...
    Date2012.07.12 CategoryArticles Views66705
    Read More
  12. No Image

    June 1, 2012 - Fighting in Syria; Michael Bloomberg Wants to Ban Large Sodas

    Fighting in Syria; Michael Bloomberg Wants to Ban Large Sodas Aired June 1, 2012 - 04:00:00 ET UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re the Carr (ph) Middle School Idea (ph) Students -- UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- from Pascagoula, Mississippi -- GROUP: And this is CNN ...
    Date2012.06.26 CategoryCNN Students News Views38649
    Read More
Board Pagination Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next
/ 7