The Scottish Aesthetics Forum is delighted to announce its next lecture:
Dr Stacie Friend (Birkbeck)
“The Factual Basis of Learning from Fiction”
Thursday, 1 March, 2018, 4:15 – 6:00pm
7 Bristo Square, Room 1.203
University of Edinburgh
The lecture is free and open to all!
Abstract: “Discussions of the cognitive value of fictional literature usually take for granted that we can learn ordinary facts from fiction, and focus instead on other forms of knowledge or cognitive improvement. I argue that at least some of these other kinds of cognitive value – such as learning ‘what it’s like’ to have different experiences, or acquiring psychological insight into other human beings – presuppose a basis in fact. I outline an account of the conditions under which we learn facts from fiction, and deploy it to better understand how fictions may be sources of other cognitive value.”
About the speaker: Stacie Friend is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Birckbeck College, Vice President of the British Society of Aesthetics, and an organiser for the London Aesthetics Forum. She’s published on a wide variety of topics within the philosophy of fiction, including the metaphysics of fictional objects, emotional responses to fiction, as well as its cognitive value. She’s perhaps best known for advocating a view of fiction as a genre.
Additional information: The lecture will be followed by a dinner with our speaker. If you would like to attend the dinner, please contact the organisers by 26 February.
*** There are limited funds to cover dinner expenses for two students, offered on a first-come-first-served basis. ***
Don’t miss our upcoming events!
28 March 2018 – Peter Lamarque (York) – “Experiencing Poetry”
– To contact the organisers: scottishaestheticsforum@gmail.com.
– For more information: http://www.saf.ppls.ed.ac.uk
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