A passion for specificity : confronting inner experience in literature and science / Marco Caracciolo and Russell T. Hurlburt ; with a foreword by Eric Schwitzgebel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Caracciolo, Marco, author.

Hurlburt, Russell T., author.

Contributor:

Schwitzgebel, Eric, writer of foreword.

Series:

Cognitive approaches to culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Psychology and literature.

Literature--Philosophy.

Experience in literature.

Literature and science.

Introspection.

Philosophy of mind.

Physical Description:

xi, 327 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Columbus : The Ohio State University Press, [2016]

Summary:

In an analytical yet increasingly intimate conversation, A Passion for Specificity: Confronting Inner Experience in Literature and Science investigates the differences between experience as conveyed in literature and experience as apprehended through scientific method. Can experiences be shared? How much do language and metaphor shape experiential reports? Where is the dividing line between a humanistic and a scientific approach to experience? In a series of exchanges, Marco Caracciolo and Russell T. Hurlburt demonstrate that those are necessarily personal issues, and they don't flinch-they relentlessly examine whether Caracciolo's presuppositions distort his understanding of reading experiences and whether Hurlburt's attachment to the method he invented causes him to take an overly narrow view of experience. Delving ever more personally, they aim Hurlburt's experience sampling methods-beeping people to discover what was in their stream of inner experience at the moment immediately before the beep-at Caracciolo's own experiences, an exercise that puts Caracciolo's presuppositions to the test and leads him to discover things about experience (his own and literature's) that he had thought impossible. A Passion for Specificity, with its personal revelations, unexpected twists, and confrontational style, reads like an epistolary novel, but it is a serious exploration of ideas at the heart of literature and science. It is a thoughtful attempt at advancing the emerging "cognitive humanities," clarifying a number of core issues in the cross-pollination of literature, psychology, philosophy, and consciousness science. Book jacket.

Contents:

In which Marco asks Russ about reading, but he responds about presuppositions

Russ performs a small study that surprises Marco

Russ presumes to identify Marco's presuppositions

Marco's questionnaire and a "boot-like" sentence

Contrasting broad experience and pristine experience, with Amsterdam as an example

In which Marco sends Russ his paper on the experience of reading Mccarthy's The road; Russ hesitates but then critiques it

Phenomena and how to explore them

In which Marco rankles at Russ's emphasis on delusion, and they discuss the existence of experience

Great Expectations and genies reveal something about knowing others' experience

Pristine experience, broad experience, presuppositions, and tendencies; Russ challenges James Joyce

On the adulteration of pristine experience

Phenomena, adulteration, apples, and turkey

Pristine experience: broad experience :: phenomena : not phenomena

Phenomena, mental states, judgments, and hunger

Getting even more personal

Similarity and familiarity, scams, and the fight to the death

Marco wears the beeper

Ultimately personal: twenty-four moments of Marco's pristine experience

A very small quibble on wording

Salient characteristics of Marco's experience as characterized by Russ

Two more quibbles on wording

Where Russ transitions back to the general

Feeling hooks inside one's chest; metaphor and experience

Metaphor tables

Retrospective prospections

In lieu of a conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 317-322) and index.

ISBN:

9780814213209

0814213200

OCLC:

945029849

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description