AGENDA
- Strawson's anti-narrativism
- Next week: living in the present, Buddhist ideas, plus a critic
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Narrativists vs. Anti-narrativists
Narrativists' views
- Narrativism as a theory of human psychology: we continually narrate our lives, building our unified life stories
- Narrativism as a theory of the self: we ARE our stories
- DeBres's account of meaning in life: the fitting story view.
- Other narrativist accounts of meaning in life
- Relationism
- Progressive relationism
- Recountism
- Agency recountism
- Narrativism as an account of the good life: you're life is going well to the extent you have a life story
"I am not a story"
- Presents what narrativists say about human psychology and the self (1&2)
- Argues that it's not true of most people
"Narrativism and meaning in life" (not a required reading)
- Rejects narrativist accounts of meaning in life, such as DeBres
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- We'll first read the yellow passages --narrativist ideas
- you are constantly telling your story
- your life has narrative cohesion
- you're the author of your life and the chief protagonist
- Then we'll read the purple passages -- anti-narrativist ideas
- Life starts over every day
- Little or no focus on the past
- multiple selves, to some degree in conflict
He's making psychological claims
- We're each Narrative or Non-narrative
- Some are Narrative
- Most are non-narrative
Let's find out! POLL
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Application to meaning in life -- Strawson, "Narrativity and Meaning in Life"
What is he arguing?
- Most of us are Non-narrative. (Strawson believes)
- If a Non-Narrative person tells a life story with a conventional narrative form, it is bound to be mostly false.
- A mostly false story can't add meaning to life (DeBres agrees). THEREFORE,
- For most of us, recounting our life stories isn't meaningful.
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An amusing anti-narrative perspective from Tyler Cowen
