Are Literary Fictions Thought Experiments? by Stefán Snævarr

According to Catherine Elgin, literary fictions are essentially thought experiments. This theory has roots in her analysis of thought experiments in science. Such experiments are of paramount importance for science, nevertheless, they are usually far removed from empirical reality, which is their cognitive strength. By being thus removed, the scientist can ignore confounding factors and focus on essential factors which the thought experiment shows. Literary fictions are extended and elaborated thought experiments. Being removed from empirical reality, the thought experiments of literary fictions can help us ignore confounding factors and focus on the essential ones. By focusing on 3-4 families in a village Jane Austen in her novels devised tightly controlled thought experiments. Drastically limiting the factors that affect the protagonists enabled her to elaborate in detail the consequences of the few that remain. Thus, literary fiction plays a cognitive role, helps us understand human reality. David Egan doubts that it is fruitful to regard literary fictions as thought experiments. Thought experiments have a delimited application in the service of particular arguments whereas the uses of literary fictions are less clearly defined and more diverse. We often consume literary stories for aesthetic pleasure alone, but we do not approach scientific or philosophical thought experiments in that manner. Moreover, we have good reasons to read thought experiments as allegories, literary fiction is usually too rich for that. But Egan overemphasizes the difference between truth and believability, puts too much emphasis on the aesthetic side of literary fiction, and ignores the fact that they involves thought experiments of a concrete kind: Let us assume that there was an aristocrat, called Darcy. However, Elgin overemphasizes the weight of cognitive thought experiments in novels.

BIO: Stefán Snævarr was born in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1953. He is professor of philosophy at the Norway Inland University, Lillehammer, Norway. His main professional interests are in the field of aesthetics in a broad sense of that expression. He has published eighteen books of various kinds in three languages (Icelandic, Norwegian, and English). Some of these books are volumes of imaginative literature, others are philosophical tomes. His last book in English was Metaphors, Narratives, Emotions. Their Interplay and Impact, published in 2010. He has also published articles in various languages. In 2010 he won the first prize in an essay competition, arranged by The International Association of Aesthetics (IAA) for the essay “Aesthetic Wisdom”.