Fiction Writing as Philosophical Methodology

Fiction Writing as Philosophical Methodology

Blog Article

In this 135 paper I argue for a novel philosophical methodology, fiction writing.Much has been made, in philosophy, of the relationship between fiction and thought experiments, but this literature focuses predominantly on completed pieces of fiction: Fully fledged and polished published pieces.In this paper I focus on how the process of writing fiction, especially speculative fiction such as science fiction and fantasy, not just the outcomes of this process, can be viewed as a distinctive philosophical methodology.This will be bound up in arguing for two claims: (1) The process of writing short speculative fiction is essentially a process of argumentation.(2) The distinctive benefit of writing fiction as opposed to writing analytic philosophy is that the starting points need not be justified.

These two claims -- which may seem like they are in tension with each other -- will each serve to justify two overall conclusions about the writing of fiction -- the very process whereby short stories or novels are created.The first is that this process is a legitimate philosophical methodology, sharing many relevant features with traditional analytical argument building and conceptual analysis.The second is that it is distinctive philosophical BOSCH Serie 4 KGN39VL35G 60/40 Fridge Freezer - Silver methodology, in that it can provide us with insights that would not be gained via other means.