Philosophy of literature: cognitive and moral value

Aims

This course aims to: 

• provide an opportunity for you to engage with the intersection of philosophy and literary studies
   
• provide an academic overview of the relevant subject matter
   
• provide the opportunity for you to develop your own views on the subject matter and to subject these views to constructive critical appraisal within the group 

Content

This course in the philosophy of literature explores the issue of whether reading literary fiction offers any distinctive cognitive benefits, that is to say what do we learn to do better or quicker from reading poetry, plays and novels that we can’t learn elsewhere (through history, psychology or science)? And secondly, whether the reading of literary fiction offers any moral benefits.  

The first question considered is the definitional question as to what we mean when we describe a text as ‘a work of literature’? We contrast essentialist and anti-essentialist accounts of fiction and apply the anti-essentialist approach, from the work of Stacie Friend (2012), to literature. We shall discuss what the standard features of literature are and any controversies surrounding the claims that literature is well-written, constituted by a thick narrative, thematically serious and the product of an author seeking to write literature. In addition, we shall build an exercise around the challenge of defining literary terms such as: style, imagery, tone, metaphor and irony at the end of the session.  

 In session 2 we shall outline the concerns raised by philosophers from Plato to the present on using literary fiction as a source of cognitive gain. For instance, that the fictional status of literary fiction is not a reliable source of knowledge, that literary fiction appeals to the emotions rather than reason, and that a literary style of writing distracts from, or is irrelevant to, genuine cognitive gain. We shall set out a schema of anti-cognitivist claims to see how they relate to each other and in order to judge which claims are the strongest. We shall also examine the ‘non-cognitivist’ claim that truth is irrelevant to our aesthetic appreciation of literature.  

 In session 3 we shall explore a range of recent responses defending the cognitive value of reading literary fiction from the works of: Hilary Putnam, Eileen John, Jenefer Robinson, Catherine Elgin, John Gibson, Dorothy Walsh and Martha Nussbaum. We shall discuss tensions between these approaches with reference to two important questions: what do literary cognitivists mean by ‘understanding’? And how do literary devices such as metaphor and irony improve understanding? Many philosophers defending the cognitive value of reading literary fiction look to understanding as the cognitive gain in question but no one has spelt out what is meant by understanding in this context. I shall sketch a disjunctivist account of understanding and make explicit how this account of understanding relates to our reading literary fiction. We shall examine how the reader’s engagement with literary devices help stimulate understanding in the senses of understanding identified.  

 In session 4, we shall question the relationship between literary art and morality. We shall begin with some case studies to frame the problem and pose two separate but related questions: can a play, novel or poem have moral value? And is moral value important in judging a work of literary art? We shall explore the second question in more detail in relation to the canonical arguments of three philosophical positions: autonomism (the view that moral value does not affect aesthetic value), ethicism (the view that moral value does affect aesthetic value) and contextualism (the view that moral value affects aesthetic value in different ways according to context).  

 In the final session I shall resurrect a moral argument in favour of reading and studying literature but argue that the real moral benefits to reading poetry, plays or novels stem from those intellectual virtues developed from close reading. In other words, what we learn through the close reading of literary fiction is also useful to our moral deliberation, discernment and decision making.  

Presentation of the course 

Each session will be guided by an accompanying handout and tutor exposition but there will be plenty of opportunities to contribute to the debate as a whole group and in smaller groups. 

Course sessions

1. What is literary fiction? 
    
2. Literary anti-cognitivism: arguments against the cognitive gain from literature. 
    
3. Literary cognitivism: arguments for the cognitive gain from literature.  
    
4. Is there a moral value in literary fiction?  
    
5. A moral argument for reading literature from intellectual virtue.  

Learning outcomes

You are expected to gain from this series of classroom sessions a greater understanding of the subject and of the core issues and arguments central to the course. 

The learning outcomes for this course are:

• to be able to give an account of the salient arguments in various issues in the philosophy of literature
   
• to be able to advance and defend a given standpoint on these issues
   
• to be confident to apply certain generic philosophical skills to subject matter beyond the remit of this course 

Required reading

There is no required reading for this course but you may find the following introduction of interest: 

Skilleas, Ole, Martin, Philosophy and Literature (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press 2001) 

Typical week: Monday to Friday 

Courses run from Monday to Friday. For each week of study, you select a morning (Am) course and an afternoon (Pm) course. The maximum class size is 25 students.   

Courses are complemented by a series of daily plenary lectures, exploring new ideas in a wide range of disciplines. To add to your learning experience, we are also planning additional evening talks and events. 

Evaluation and Academic Credit  

If you are seeking to enhance your own study experience, or earn academic credit from your Cambridge Summer Programme studies at your home institution, you can submit written work for assessment for one or more of your courses.  

Essay questions are set and assessed against the University of Cambridge standard by your Course Director, a list of essay questions can be found in the Course Materials. Essays are submitted two weeks after the end of each course, so those studying for multiple weeks need to plan their time accordingly. There is an evaluation fee of £75 per essay. 

For more information about writing essays see Evaluation and Academic Credit. 

Certificate of attendance 

A certificate of attendance will be sent to you electronically after the programme.