Fiction and Imagination

Derek Matravers (Open University (UK))

*Please address all enquiries directly to Dr Barbara Underwood: [email protected] 

Professor Derek Matravers
Fiction and Imagination
On Wednesday 9 October, 7.30 - 9 pm

In the Walnut Room, (now known as Jug & Bottle) Coach  & Horses, 27 Barnes High Street, Barnes SW13

ALL WELCOME  (no previous knowledge needed)

Barnes Philosophy Club web page: http://barnesphiloclub.blogspot.co.uk/  
See also www.barbarabenson.com

Abstract:

Much work has been done recently on trying to give an account of fiction, and our engagement with fiction. The following has emerged as a consensus:

1. What it is to be fictional, is that we are invited to imagine it.
2. Imagining something differs from believing it, in that the latter motivates action and the former does not.

It seems to me that (2) is not right. Without (2), it is unclear what we could mean by (1). I shall argue that it is not the non-fiction/ fiction distinction that people are concerned about, but rather the distinction between things happening around here, and being told about things happening elsewhere.'

  Speaker: 

Derek is at present with the Philosophy Dept at Open University; he has written much on art and aesthetics including his book 'Art and Emotion'.  He says that his own attitude to philosophy is that it ought to try to make things clear; at least, as clear as possible without falsifying what is being talked about. He says: 'I am interested in various fields, but most of my work has been trying to solve problems in the philosophy of art through work in metaphysics and the philosophy of mind. This has led me to consider broader problems about art in the twentieth century: namely, the nature of modern art and modernism.'
This time Derek will be tackling the question of fiction and imagination.