dear ken,
your statement "(if) everyTHING is fiction ..." is not the same as "every
known thing is fiction." if you confuse the two you get into epistemological
troubles.
how could you assume that the acknowledgement that the known world is
fiction prevents you from deciding which one is better, more reasonable, or
responsible? sure, some fictions are better than others. the point is that
you can't talk about a world without talking about it. you don't have
access to a reality outside of your nervous system that creates it.
klaus
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ken
Friedman
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 11:15 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Is all writing fiction?
Dear Klaus,
While all fiction is invented, not all inventions are fiction.
Epistemological claims of this sort trouble me. They lead to the problem of
infinite regress. They also raise a problem. If everything is fiction or
everything is invented solely by language, it is difficult -- perhaps
impossible -- to make statements in the "is"
form or to argue for any view as against any other. If the world we know is
fiction, how can any position be better, more reasonable or responsible than
any other?
Perhaps I'm mistaken on this -- that is, wrong or incorrect or inadequate,
not simply adopting a different view -- but I'd argue that there is a world,
that some things in the world are indeed taking place, and that these events
and activities influence the lives of human beings. We invent our lives and
create the positions and actions we take, but this does not make our
positions, lives, or actions fictional in their consequences.
Yours,
Ken
--
Klaus Krippendorff wrote:
If fiction is what is created by an act of invention -- as my dictionary
suggest, i'd argue more generally
THE WORLD WE KNOW IS FICTION
--
Merriam-Webster's defines "fiction" as:
"1 a : something invented by the imagination or feigned; specifically
: an invented story b : fictitious literature (as novels or short
stories) c : a work of fiction; especially : NOVEL; 2 a : an assumption of a
possibility as a fact irrespective of the question of its truth <a legal
fiction> b : a useful illusion or pretense; 3 :
the action of feigning or of creating with the imagination."
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