Thought experiments, fiction, and literary genres

M. A. thesis

Tadej Todorović (Author), Victor Kennedy (Mentor), Bojan Borstner (Co-mentor)

Abstract

The thesis explores the relationship between thought experiments and fiction. It argues that thought experiments should be looked at as a sub-category of fiction, as this would enable fiction to be regarded as a source of knowledge and simultaneously preserve the special status of thought experimenting in philosophy. Furthermore, the thesis explores how the notion of thought experiments as a sub-category of fiction can illuminate and resolve certain issues in the classification of the literary genre utopia. Namely, it focuses on how to differentiate between eutopias, anti-utopias, and dystopias. By splitting the category of thought experiments into constructive and destructive thought experiments, it shows that eutopias can be perceived as being built upon constructive thought experiments, and anti-utopias and dystopias as being built upon destructive thought experiments, which suggests that dystopia is a sub-category of anti-utopia. Moreover, the developed theory is tested by showing how Le Guin's The Dispossessed, Huxley's Brave New World, and Atwood's Maddaddam series, examples of anti-utopias and dystopias, are built upon destructive thought experiments, which substantiates our claim extensively.

Keywords

master theses;literary cognitivism;thought experiments;fiction;utopia;eutopia;dystopia;anti-utopia;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2017
Typology:	2.09 - Master's Thesis
Organization:	UM FF - Faculty of Arts
Publisher:	[T. Todorović]
UDC:	82.09:1(043.2)
COBISS:	23403016
Views:	861
Downloads:	161
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata:

Other data

Secondary language:	Slovenian
Secondary title:	Miselni eksperimenti, fikcija in literarne zvrsti
Secondary abstract:	Magistrsko delo raziskuje povezavo med miselnimi eksperimenti in fikcijo. Zagovarja teorijo, da bi na miselne eksperimente morali gledati kot na podkategorije fikcije, saj bi to omogočilo, da bi bila fikcija razumljena kot vir znanja, hkrati pa tudi, da bi miselni eksperimenti ohranili poseben status znotraj filozofije. Delo raziskuje, kako lahko razumevanje miselnih eksperimentov kot podkategorije fikcije osvetli in razreši določene probleme pri klasifikaciji literarnega žanra utopija. Pri tem se osredotoča na razločevanje med eutopijami, antiutopijami in distopijami. Z delitvijo kategorije miselnih eksperimentov na konstruktivne in destruktivne miselne eksperimente delo pokaže, da lahko na eutopijo gledamo kot na fikcijo, zgrajeno na konstruktivnih miselnih eksperimentih, na antiutopijo in distopijo pa kot na fikcijo, zgrajeno na destruktivnih miselnih eksperimentih, kar kaže na to, da je distopija podkategorija antiutopije. Teorijo prav tako preverimo z deli The Dispossessed (Le Guin), Brave New World (Huxley) in trilogijo Maddaddam (Atwood), ki so primeri antiutopij in distopij, zgrajenih na destruktivnih miselnih eksperimentih, kar podkrepi razvito idejo.
Secondary keywords:	magistrska dela;literarni kognitivizem;miselni eksperimenti;fikcija;utopija;eutopija;distopija;antiutopija;
URN:	URN:SI:UM:
Type (COBISS):	Master's thesis/paper
Thesis comment:	Univ. v Mariboru, Filozofska fak., Oddelek za anglistiko in amerikanistiko
Pages:	63 f.
ID:	10863836