Narrative, Philosophy and Life

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

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2. Introduction

   • Allen Speight

   Pages 1-7

3. Narrative, Philosophy and Life: Theoretical Questions About Narrative

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 9-9

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   2. Against Narrativity

      • Galen Strawson

      Pages 11-31

   3. “The Size of the Self”: Minimalist Selves and Narrative Self-Constitution

      • Marya Schechtman

      Pages 33-47

   4. The Narrative Shape of Agency: Three Contemporary Philosophical Perspectives

      • Allen Speight

      Pages 49-60

   5. A Story of No Self: Literary and Philosophical Observations on Aśvaghoṣa’s Life of the Buddha

      • Malcolm David Eckel

      Pages 61-79

   6. How Sartre, Philosopher, Misreads Sartre, Novelist: Nausea and the Adventures of the Narrative Self

      • Ben Roth

      Pages 81-102

   7. Aristotle on Narrative Intelligence

      • Silvia Carli

      Pages 103-118

   8. Dostoevsky and the Literature of Process: What Open Time Looks Like

      • Gary Saul Morson

      Pages 119-134

   9. Narrative and the Literary Imagination

      • John Gibson

      Pages 135-150

   10. “And We Shall Compose a Poem to Establish These Truths”: The Power of Narrative Art in South Asian Literary Cultures

       • Anne Monius

       Pages 151-165

4. Philosophy, Narrative and Life Writing: Philosophical Biography and Biographical Philosophy

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 167-167

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   2. Descartes’ Biography as a Guide to His Meditations

      • Desmond M. Clarke

      Pages 169-180

   3. Writing the Lives of Philosophers: Reflections on Spinoza and Others

      • Steven Nadler

      Pages 181-190

   4. Hume’s Own Life

      • Aaron Garrett

      Pages 191-198

   5. The (Ir)relevance of Biography: The Case of Fichte

      • Manfred Kuehn

      Pages 199-208

5. Back Matter

   Pages 209-210

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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 incorporatesthe 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.                                                                                                                          

• Narrative Intelligence
• life writing
• narratology within philosophy
• philosophical aspect of popular fiction
• philosophical biography
• philosophical narrative accross cultures

                                                                                                                                                                                       

• Institute for Philosophy & Religion, Boston University, Boston, USA

  Allen Speight

                                                                                                                                          

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