Philosophy, Literature and Understanding - by Jukka Mikkonen (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Challenging existing methodological conceptions of the analytic approach to aesthetics, Jukka Mikkonen brings together philosophy, literary studies and cognitive psychology to offer a new theory on the cognitive value of reading fiction.

Philosophy, Literature and Understanding defends the epistemic significance of narratives, arguing that it should be explained in terms of understanding rather than knowledge. Mikkonen formulates understanding as a cognitive process, which he connects to narrative imagining in order to assert that narrative is a central tool for communicating understanding. Demonstrating the effects that literary works have on their readers, he examines academic critical analysis, responses of the reading public and nonfictional writings that include autobiographical testimony to their writer's influences and attitudes to life. In doing so, he provides empirical evidence of the cognitive benefits of literature and of how readers demonstrate the growth of their understanding.

By drawing on the written testimony of the reader, this book is an important intervention into debates on the value of literature that incorporates understanding in new and imaginative ways.

Review Quotes

"Philosophy, Literature, and Understanding is a rich and rewarding inquiry into the epistemic functions of literature. Drawing on aesthetics, literary theory, criticism, and cognitive science it argues that literature is cognitively valuable because it advances understanding." --Catherine Z. Elgin, Professor of the Philosophy of Education, Harvard University, USA

"Jukka Mikkonen's Philosophy, Literature and Understanding: On Reading and Cognition elegantly presents new arguments to advance the research project known as literary cognitivism. ... for cognitivists of all stripes, the exciting arguments found here should be of serious interest." --British Journal of Aesthetics

"In this insightful and erudite inquiry, Mikkonen offers a substantive modification of what 'cognitivism' encompasses within the philosophy of literature." --Professor Tzachi Zamir, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

"The experience of literature may not reach out and directly change the world, but it can change our way of seeing the world. Offering an enriched understanding of how it is that we gain from literature what we do, Jukka Mikkonen's welcome new volume casts much light on our imaginative entry into a text, on the sense-making power of narrative, and, taken in toto, the special role literature can play in the examined life." --Garry L. Hagberg, James H. Ottaway Professor of Philosophy and Aesthetics, Bard College, USA

About the Author