Narrative, Philosophy and Life (Boston Studies in Philosophy, Religion and Public Life Book 2)

This notable collection provides an interdisciplinary platform for prominent thinkers who have all made significant recent contributions to exploring the nexus of philosophy and narrative. It includes the latest assessments of several key positions in the current philosophical debate. These perspectives underpin a range of thematic strands exploring the influence of narrative on notions of selfhood, identity, temporal experience, and the emotions, among others. Drawing from the humanities, literature, history and religious studies as well as philosophy, the volume opens with papers on narrative intelligence and the relationship between narrative and agency. It features special sections of in-depth commentary on a range of topics. How, for example, do narrative and philosophical biography interact? Do celebrated biographical and autobiographical accounts of the lives of philosophers contribute to our understanding of their work? This new volume has a substantive remit that incorporates the intercultural religious view of philosophy?s links to narrative together with its many secular aspects. A valuable new resource for more advanced scholars in all its constituent disciplines, it represents a significant addition to the literature of this richly productive area of research.;Acknowledgments; Contents; Contributors; Chapter 1: Introduction; 1.1 Philosophy, Narrative and Life; 1.2 Scope and Aims of the Volume; References; Part I: Narrative, Philosophy and Life: Theoretical Questions About Narrative; Chapter 2: Against Narrativity; 2.1; 2.2; 2.3; 2.4; 2.5; 2.6; 2.7; 2.8; 2.9; 2.10; References; Chapter 3: "The Size of the Self": Minimalist Selves and Narrative Self-Constitution; 3.1 Locke on Person and Self; 3.2 The Narrative Self and the Minimal Self; 3.3 Self-Awareness, Self-Concern, and Time-Relative Interests; 3.4 A Kind of Compromise. Acknowledgments Contents Contributors Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Philosophy, Narrative and Life 1.2 Scope and Aims of the Volume References Part I: Narrative, Philosophy and Life: Theoretical Questions About Narrative Chapter 2: Against Narrativity 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10 References Chapter 3: "The Size of the Self": Minimalist Selves and Narrative Self-Constitution 3.1 Locke on Person and Self 3.2 The Narrative Self and the Minimal Self 3.3 Self-Awareness, Self-Concern, and Time-Relative Interests 3.4 A Kind of Compromise. 3.5 Conclusions and ConcernsReferences Chapter 4: The Narrative Shape of Agency: Three Contemporary Philosophical Perspectives 4.1 Agency and Minimal Narrative: Strawson's Challenge 4.2 Narrative Thinking and the Role of Irony: Goldie 4.3 Improvisation and Narrative Practical Reasoning: Velleman 4.4 Assessing Narrative Agency: Questions for Further Philosophical Engagement References Chapter 5: A Story of No Self: Literary and Philosophical Observations on Aśvaghoṣa's Life of the Buddha Sources. Chapter 6: How Sartre, Philosopher, Misreads Sartre, Novelist: Nausea and the Adventures of the Narrative Self6.1 MacIntyre and Strawson on Sartre/Roquentin 6.2 Simmel and Sartre on Adventures 6.3 A More Holistic Reading of Nausea 6.4 Reframing the Narrative Self 6.5 Against Didacticism References Chapter 7: Aristotle on Narrative Intelligence References Chapter 8: Dostoevsky and the Literature of Process: What Open Time Looks Like 8.1 Closists and Openists 8.2 Sufficient Rhyme and Reason 8.3 The God of Pope and Leibniz 8.4 Subtracting the Agent 8.5 Social Physics. 8.6 Appendicitis8.7 The Openist View 8.8 Remember the Hungarians! 8.9 Narrativeness 8.10 Intention 8.11 Representing Process References Chapter 9: Narrative and the Literary Imagination 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 References Chapter 10: "And We Shall Compose a Poem to Establish These Truths": The Power of Narrative Art in South Asian Literary Cultures References Part II: Philosophy, Narrative and Life Writing: Philosophical Biography and Biographical Philosophy Chapter 11: Descartes' Biography as a Guide to His Meditations 11.1 Descartes and Natural Philosophy 11.2 The Meditations. This notable collection provides an interdisciplinary platform for prominent thinkers who have all made significant recent contributions to exploring the nexus of philosophy and narrative. It includes the latest assessments of several key positions in the current philosophical debate. These perspectives underpin a range of thematic strands exploring the influence of narrative on notions of selfhood, identity, temporal experience, and the emotions, among others. Drawing from the humanities, literature, history and religious studies as well as philosophy, the volume opens with papers on narrative intelligence and the relationship between narrative and agency. It features special sections of in-depth commentary on a range of topics. How, for example, do narrative and philosophical biography interact? Do celebrated biographical and autobiographical accounts of the lives of philosophers contribute to our understanding of their work? This new volume has a substantive remit that incorporates the intercultural religious view of philosophyĺls links to narrative together with its many secular aspects. A valuable new resource for more advanced scholars in all its constituent disciplines, it represents a significant addition to the literature of this richly productive area of research