Problems in Philosophy of Literature

Paolo Pitari

doi:10.25159/1753-5387/15988

Authors

Paolo Pitari Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0472-7413

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25159/1753-5387/15988

Keywords:

Peter Lamarque, Carola Barbero, essentialism, institutionalism, textualism

Abstract

This article discusses methodological inconsistencies affecting philosophy of literature today, especially in its analytical and perspectivist instantiations. In doing so, it raises questions on method that apply to the humanities in general. As a result of the inquiry, an invitation to return to ontology-metaphysics is formulated: too often, isolating specificities from their contexts can lead to arbitrary definitions and incomplete analyses. It might be necessary to adopt a wider outlook—one which seeks the foundations of knowledge and to explain a specific object in relation to its widest possible context—to explain many of the literary objects we want to understand.

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