tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post3542073225748371606..comments2023-10-24T04:29:23.693-06:00Comments on Atheist Ethicist: E2.0: Jonathan Gottschall: Literary ScienceAlonzo Fyfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05687777216426347054noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post-16281098506894953422010-02-28T18:57:12.565-07:002010-02-28T18:57:12.565-07:00I realize this is a very old post, but I came acro...I realize this is a very old post, but I came across it by chance and I had a few thoughts to share. I love the premise of your blog and I'm really interested in reading more. <br /><br />Thanks for the post on Jonathan Gottschall -- I am finishing an MA in English right now, and I can tell you that to my dismay, hardly anyone in my admittedly small program has shown anything other than disdain, severe skepticism, or at best disinterest in the ideas of Literary Darwinism. I'm not sure where the field is going, but I at least find it a fascinating area to explore, and it's a shame that it has been met with such resistance.<br /><br />Anyway, in consideration of your ethical angle, I think a different way to look at it is that scientific literary research can help us identify and understand aspects of our nature, allowing us to assess ourselves and decide what tendencies we might want to do away with. Instead of labeling entire books as "good" or "bad," we could identify traits expressed in literature and try to determine if they are cultural or species-wide. Books that display a focus on female appearance are not necessarily political texts that are reinforce the patriarchy, so it is not as if we must purge it from our literature. Instead of thinking of this finding as a characteristic of our unchanging, deep-seated natures to be eliminated, I think we should consider the focus on female appearance as a clue into our evolutionary history, which is always changing. <br /><br />In terms of ethics, though, our unique position in the framework of natural selection gives us some freedom in modifying our behavior. Therefore, it would be the work either of literary scholars or philosophers of any kind to raise discussions of how we can best live as a cultural species in light of what we discover about ourselves through literature. Furthermore, instead of writing prescribed, didactic texts in favor of these new or refined philosophical ideas, thoughtful writers can choose to express these philosophies through the art of fiction just as we have done throughout our literary history. <br /><br />Thanks again for the great post!beckie loughhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04468655360375066075noreply@blogger.com