''The Philosophy of Chance'', with subtitle ''"Literature in the Light of

Empiricism In philosophy, empiricism is an epistemological theory that holds that knowledge or justification comes only or primarily from sensory experience. It is one of several views within epistemology, along with rationalism and skepticism. Empir ...

"'' ( pl, Filozofia przypadku. Literatura w świetle empirii) is an essay by Polish author

Stanisław Lem Stanisław Herman Lem (; 12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction and essays on various subjects, including philosophy, futurology, and literary criticism. Many of his science fiction stories are of satirical ...

on the

literary theory Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mo ...

and the influence of literature on the modern culture. However, as

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

Henryk Markiewicz Henryk Markiewicz (16 November 1922 – 31 October 2013) was a Polish historian, specializing in the history and theory of literature, with the particular focus on the Polish literature of 1864-1939. He was a professor emeritus of the Jagielloni ...

noted, the subtitle is somewhat misleading: starting with Lem's take on literary theory, the essay turns into the "

General Theory of Everything The General Theory of Everything ( pl, Ogólna Teoria Wszystkiego) is a sarcastic coinage of Stanisław Lem introduced in 1966. The biographical sketch of Ijon Tichy in "The Twenty-eighth Voyage" of Tychy's ''Star Diaries'' says that a grandfather ...

": of the Universe, evolution, and culture, based on a premise that chance, eventuality is the universal factor.
An afterword to the book
/ref> The essay was first published in 1968 by

Wydawnictwo Literackie Wydawnictwo Literackie (abbreviated WL, lit. "Literary Press") is a Kraków-based Polish publishing house, which has been referred to as one of Poland's "most respected". Company history Since its foundation in 1953, Wydawnictwo Literackie has b ...

as a book of over 600 pages.

Lem's literary theory

In the essay, Lem criticizes the contemporary literary theory, in particular,

Roman Ingarden Roman Witold Ingarden (; February 5, 1893 – June 14, 1970) was a Polish philosopher who worked in aesthetics, ontology, and phenomenology. Before World War II, Ingarden published his works mainly in the German language. During the war, he swi ...

's ''Literary Work of Art'', and proceeds with his own. He cautions that he deals only with the

ontological In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exis ...

side of the issue, disregarding the

esthetic Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

al side of literature. Lem's exposition draw on analogies from various natural sciences: probability theory, information theory, computer science, etc. The major idea is that a literary work must be considered as an infinite set of its readings. The literary text ''per se'' is just an "input instruction set" of an "information

program Program, programme, programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program management, the process of managing several related projects * Time management * Program, a part of planning Arts and entertainment Audio * Progra ...

", and each reader subject to it produces a particular concretization, which depends on the reader's

worldview A worldview or world-view or ''Weltanschauung'' is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the whole of the individual's or society's knowledge, culture, and point of view. A worldview can include natural p ...

at the moment of reading, which, in its turn, depends on the established cultural norms.Markiewicz
pp. 93, 94
/ref> For example, Lem notices that Kafka's "

In the Penal Colony "In the Penal Colony" ("") (also translated as "In the Penal Settlement") is a short story by Franz Kafka written in German in October 1914, revised in November 1918, and first published in October 1919. As in some of Kafka's other writings, the ...

" immediately brings associations with

Nazi death camps Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...

in modern reader's mind, although in 1914 Kafka could not have been describing these camps. This observation gives Lem an incentive to consider unpredictable arbitrariness in the literary analysis of a particular text. At the same time, there are certain kinds of texts which have a rather rigid structure, which rely on a single possible way of perception to make them meaningful (e.g., jokes) or based on certain pre-set standards and expectations (e.g.,

detective story Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as specu ...

). As Lem himself summarized, "The more original a work, or the more it deviates from the generic model, the more diverse are its interpretation possibilities - like a

Rorschach test The Rorschach test is a projective psychological test in which subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both. Some psychologists use this test to examine a pe ...

Chance in cultural dynamics

In subsequent editions of the essay the view on literature as a domain of

random process In probability theory and related fields, a stochastic () or random process is a mathematical object usually defined as a family of random variables. Stochastic processes are widely used as mathematical models of systems and phenomena that appe ...

es was expanded by Lem on culture as a whole, where random forces drive the realizations of eventualities in culture in unpredictable directions. Nevertheless, Lem stops short of declaring chance or "blind fate" as a dominating force in cultural dynamics. In reality forces of chaos are counteracted by the forces of order and purpose. At the same time, Lem's essay instructs to try and recognize the act of Chance in situations where one would expect an act of Purpose.

Chance in Lem's works

The concept of chance as the force which contests the cause-effect relationship is present in Lem's science fiction since his earliest works

Wojciech Orliński Wojciech Orliński (born 24 January 1969 in Warsaw) is a Polish journalist, writer, and blogger. Between 1997 and 2021 he was a regular columnist for Gazeta Wyborcza. He has written several books, including an alternate history novel, an encyclo ...

, ''Co to są sepulki? Wszystko o Lemie'' 'What are Sepulki? Everything about Lem'' 2007, , section ''Przypadek'' Chance" pp. 184-186 The plots of Lem's novels, ''

The Investigation ''The Investigation'' (original title ''Śledztwo'') is a science fiction/ detective/ thriller novel by the Polish writer Stanisław Lem. The novel incorporates a philosophical discourse on explanation of unknown phenomena. It was first publis ...

'', ''

The Chain of Chance ''The Chain of Chance'' (original Polish title: ''Katar'', literally, "Rhinitis"/Catarrh) is a science fiction/detective novel by the Polish writer Stanisław Lem, published in 1976. Lem's treatment of the detective genre introduces many nontra ...

'', and ''

His Master's Voice His Master's Voice (HMV) was the name of a major British record label created in 1901 by The Gramophone Co. Ltd. The phrase was coined in the late 1890s from the title of a painting by English artist Francis Barraud, which depicted a Jack Russ ...

'' are significantly based on this concept. Also, in ''

Hospital of the Transfiguration ''Hospital of the Transfiguration'' (in Polish: ''Szpital Przemienienia'') is a book by Polish writer Stanisław Lem. It tells the story of a young doctor, Stefan Trzyniecki, who after graduation starts to work in a psychiatric hospital. The story ...

'' Sekulowski, an eccentric poet and philosopher hiding from the Nazis in an asylum, subscribes to the "philosophy of chance". The plot of the novel '' Professor A. Dońda'' is based on a chain of errors, suggesting that the chance is a driving force of the change. Jerzy Jarzębski
"SPÓR MIĘDZY MUNCHHAUSENEM A GULIWEREM"
an afterword to ''Dzienniki gwiazdowe''

Notes

References

*Henryk Markiewicz, "''Summa litteraturae'' Stanisława Lema sposobem niecybernetycznym wyłożona", in: Henryk Markiewicz, ''Utarczki i perswazje 1947-2006'', 2007, (first published in '' Życie Literackie'' ( pl), no. 48, 1969) *

Michał Głowiński Michał Głowiński (born 4 November 1934, in Warsaw, Poland) is a Polish philologist, historian and literary theorist specializing in the history of Polish literature. Głowiński is a professor of humanities and member of the Polish Academy ...

, "On Concretization", in: ''Language, Literature and Meaning'' 1979,
"Philosophie des Zufalls"
Lem's comment on the essay (in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Philosophy of Chance, The Works by Stanisław Lem 1968 essays