Philosophical Fiction
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Philosophical Fiction
Philosophical fiction is any fiction that devotes a significant portion of its content to the sort of questions addressed by philosophy. It might explore any facet of the human condition, including the function and role of society, the nature and motivation of human acts, the purpose of life, ethics or morals, the role of art in human lives, the role of experience or reason in the development of knowledge, whether there exists free will, or any other topic of philosophical interest. Philosophical fiction includes the ''novel of ideas'', which can also fall under the genre of science fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, and bildungsroman. There is no universally accepted definition of philosophical fiction, but a sampling of notable works can help to outline its history. For example, a Platonic dialogue could be considered philosophical fiction. Some modern philosophers have written novels, plays, or short fiction in order to demonstrate or introduce their ideas. Common exampl ...
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Philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some sources claim the term was coined by Pythagoras ( BCE), although this theory is disputed by some. Philosophical methods include questioning, critical discussion, rational argument, and systematic presentation. in . Historically, ''philosophy'' encompassed all bodies of knowledge and a practitioner was known as a ''philosopher''."The English word "philosophy" is first attested to , meaning "knowledge, body of knowledge." "natural philosophy," which began as a discipline in ancient India and Ancient Greece, encompasses astronomy, medicine, and physics. For example, Newton's 1687 ''Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy'' later became classified as a book of physics. In the 19th century, the growth of modern research universiti ...
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Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic, as well as a leading figure in 20th-century French philosophy and Marxism. His work has influenced sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory, and literary studies, and continues to do so. He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature despite attempting to refuse it, saying that he always declined official honors and that "a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution." Sartre held an open relationship with prominent feminist and fellow existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. Together, Sartre and de Beauvoir challenged the cultural and social assumptions and expectations of their upbringings, which they considered bourgeois, in both lifestyles and thought. The conflict between oppressive, ...
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Sci Phi Journal
''Sci Phi Journal'' is a quarterly online magazine (formerly monthly, with a print option) devoted to publishing science fiction stories and essays "at the intersection between speculative philosophy", anthropology and other humanities, with a particular focus on "fictional non-fiction". The first issue was published in October 2014. Jason Rennie founded and helmed the publication with Ben Zwycky until mid-2017. The quarterly was then briefly managed by Ray Blank, and has been edited by Adam Gerencser and Mariano Martin Rodriguez since January 2019, the pair having relaunched the magazine as a "European project". In November 2014, a short story by Lou Antonelli featured in the magazine's second issue was nominated for the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Short Story. In 2016, the journal was a finalist for the Hugo Award, and nominated for the Locus Award. At the 2022 EuroCon held in Luxembourg, ''Sci Phi Journal'' won the European SF Award for Best Magazine. Cover art and non-fiction es ...
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Philosophy And Literature
Philosophy and literature involves the literary treatment of philosophers and philosophical themes (the literature of philosophy), and the philosophical treatment of issues raised by literature (the philosophy of literature). The philosophy of literature Strictly speaking, the philosophy of literature is a branch of aesthetics, the branch of philosophy that deals with the question, "what is art"? Much of aesthetic philosophy has traditionally focused on the plastic arts or music, however, at the expense of the verbal arts. In fact, 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 of narrative raises philosophical issues. In narrative, a creator can embody, and readers be led to imagine, fi ...
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List Of Philosophical Fiction Authors
This is a list of notable philosophical fiction authors and their works, in chronological order according to the author's year of birth. References {{DEFAULTSORT:Philosophical fiction authors Lists of writers Philosophical fiction Philosophical novels ...
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Post-structuralism
Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques of structuralism, common themes among them include the rejection of the self-sufficiency of structuralism, as well as an interrogation of the binary oppositions that constitute its structures. Accordingly, post-structuralism discards the idea of interpreting media (or the world) within pre-established, socially constructed structures.Bensmaïa, Réda. 2005. "Poststructuralism." Pp. 92–93 in The Columbia History of Twentieth-Century French Thought', edited by L. Kritzman. Columbia University Press. Poster, Mark. 1988. "Introduction: Theory and the problem of Context." pp. 5–6 i''Critical theory and poststructuralism: in search of a context'' Merquior, José G. 1987. ''Foucault'', (Fontana Modern Masters series). University of Califor ...
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Speedboat (novel)
''Speedboat'' is a 1976 modernist novel by Renata Adler that offers a fragmentary account of the experiences of Jen Fain, a young journalist living in New York City. Publication history Prior to ''Speedboat'', Adler was largely known for her nonfiction reportage in ''The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...'', and while ''Speedboat'' is billed as a novel it includes actual incidents and autobiographical elements; as Adler once remarked, "Some of it was real." When the book was published in 1976, the 39-year-old Adler had temporarily left writing to become a first-year student at Yale Law School. "I guess I didn’t know what was going to happen when ''Speedboat'' came out", she later said. "I thought, I better be in law school, because who knows whether a ...
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David Markson
David Merrill Markson (December 20, 1927 – June 4, 2010)The_Egyptian_Book_of_the_Dead.html" ;"title="'The Egyptian Book of the Dead">'The Egyptian Book of the Dead'' (p. 147) * "A kind of verbal fugue" (p. 170) * "A classic tragedy [in many ways]" (p. 171) * "A volume entitled 'Writer's Block'" (p. 173) * "A comedy of a sort" (p. 184) * "His synthetic personal ''Finnegans Wake''" (p. 185) * "Nothing more than a fundamentally recognizable genre all the while" (p. 189) * "Nothing more or less than a read" * "An unconventional, generally melancholy though sometimes even playful now-ending read." In ''This Is Not a Novel'', the Writer character states, "A novel with no intimation of story whatsoever, Writer would like to contrive" (p. 2). ''Reader's Block,'' likewise, calls itself "a novel of intellectual reference and allusion, so to speak minus much of the novel" (p. 61). Rather than consisting of a specific plot, they can be said t ...
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Wittgenstein's Mistress
''Wittgenstein's Mistress'' by David Markson is a highly stylized, experimental novel in the tradition of Samuel Beckett. The novel is mainly a series of statements made in the first person; the protagonist is a woman named Kate who believes herself to be the last human on earth. Though her statements shift quickly from topic to topic, the topics often recur, and often refer to Western cultural icons, ranging from Zeno to Beethoven to Willem de Kooning. Readers familiar with Ludwig Wittgenstein's ''Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'' will recognize stylistic similarities to that work. Though Markson's original manuscript was rejected fifty-four times, the book, when finally published in 1988 by Dalkey Archive Press, was met with critical acclaim. In particular, the ''New York Times Book Review'' praised it for "address ngformidable philosophic questions with tremendous wit." A decade later, David Foster Wallace described it as "pretty much the high point of experimental fiction ...
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Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest person ever to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24. Nietzsche resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life; he completed much of his core writing in the following decade. In 1889, at age 45, he suffered a collapse and afterward a complete loss of his mental faculties, with paralysis and probably vascular dementia. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897 and then with his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche. Nietzsche died in 1900, after experiencing pneumonia and multiple strokes. Nietzsche's writing spans philosophical polemics ...
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Thus Spoke Zarathustra
''Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None'' (german: Also sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen), also translated as ''Thus Spake Zarathustra'', is a work of philosophical fiction written by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche between 1883 and 1885. The protagonist is nominally the historical Zoroaster, but, besides a handful of sentences, Nietzsche is not concerned with a specific resemblance. Much of the book consists of discourses by Zarathustra on a wide variety of subjects, most of which end with the refrain, "Thus spoke Zarathustra." The character of Zarathustra first appeared in Nietzsche's earlier book ''The Gay Science'' (at §342, which closely resembles §1 of "Zarathustra's Prologue" in ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''). The style of ''Zarathustra'' has facilitated varied and often incompatible ideas about what Zarathustra says. Zarathustra's " planations and claims are almost always analogical and figurative."Del Caro and Pippin, "Introduction" in ...
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