Narrative Dimensions of Philosophy

As pattern seeking creatures, humans use story-telling techniques to create and communicate beliefs, thoughts and ideas about the world, personal identity and reality. In evolved and complex social contexts, These beliefs, thoughts and ideas have taken the form of philosophical texts, which construct elaborate and systematic theories, principles and arguments. The question that arises is: do such conceptually sophisticated texts also exhibit, on some level, the prototypical...
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As pattern seeking creatures, humans use story-telling techniques to create and communicate beliefs, thoughts and ideas about the world, personal identity and reality. In evolved and complex social contexts, These beliefs, thoughts and ideas have taken the form of philosophical texts, which construct elaborate and systematic theories, principles and arguments. The question that arises is: do such conceptually sophisticated texts also exhibit, on some level, the prototypical story-telling patterns found in myths and fairy tales? This book explores this question, using concepts from semiotics and narratology.
The book has two main objectives: first, to outline and illustrate a new semiotic technique for analyzing complex non-fictional texts, such as philosophy. Second, to use this technique in presenting and discussing three major full-length works by influential philosophers Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Soren Kierkegaard and John Austin. Bridging the gap between literary analysis and philosophical investigation, the book examines the ways in which these philosophers' conceptualizations of reality, self and action are formed through narrative strategy."