That said,
...at least in college writing classes with essay assignments, I DO remember developing more than a few highly speculative (but probably somewhat dubious in retrospect) theses in my essays. I dunno, it made me more creative and a better writer, but later I became more sympathetic to the attitude that to make writing really good, research of the relevant facts trumps artistic flair and brilliant introspection.
The thing about studying fiction and then writing about it is that you just don't have a way other than introspection to try to divine what the author is trying to do, so imaginations run wild.
Originally posted by Jon`C:
If you're complaining about believing your own ideas that you successfully argued to yourself, I'm struggling to understand what you think a more appropriate standard for accepting an idea should be. Does it only count if someone else convinces you? Where do you think original ideas come from?
I'm not asking this as part of some epistemological debate, I mean from a purely pragmatic standpoint. You've justified your own belief based on information you believe true. That doesn't mean you're right, but this is quite literally as close to the Platonic ideal of knowledge you can possibly get. How isn't that good enough? I don't even have the words
I'm not asking this as part of some epistemological debate, I mean from a purely pragmatic standpoint. You've justified your own belief based on information you believe true. That doesn't mean you're right, but this is quite literally as close to the Platonic ideal of knowledge you can possibly get. How isn't that good enough? I don't even have the words
...at least in college writing classes with essay assignments, I DO remember developing more than a few highly speculative (but probably somewhat dubious in retrospect) theses in my essays. I dunno, it made me more creative and a better writer, but later I became more sympathetic to the attitude that to make writing really good, research of the relevant facts trumps artistic flair and brilliant introspection.
The thing about studying fiction and then writing about it is that you just don't have a way other than introspection to try to divine what the author is trying to do, so imaginations run wild.
