Fiction, Fact and Value | Stacie Friend (Edinburgh)
Fiction, Fact and Value
Stacie Friend (Edinburgh)
Philosophers and other scholars have long held that reading fictional literature is cognitively valuable in a variety of ways. These ways usually do not include the capacity of fiction to convey factual information, however, because (it is thought) this capacity cannot contribute to the artistic or literary value of a work. In this paper I argue that the way we learn facts from fiction is essential to explaining several other cognitive values often attributed to fiction. I further suggest that truth and accuracy may contribute, not just to the cognitive value of a work of fiction, but also to its value as fictional literature.
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