Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
  • Register
  • Login
  • Language
    • English
    • Język Polski
  • Menu
  • Home
  • Current
  • Archives
  • Announcements
  • About
    • About the Journal
    • Submissions
    • Editorial Team
    • Privacy Statement
    • Contact
  • Register
  • Login
  • Language:
  • English
  • Język Polski

Ruch Filozoficzny

“Is There a Problem about Fictional Discourse”? J. Searle vs. R. Rorty
  • Home
  • /
  • “Is There a Problem about Fictional Discourse”? J. Searle vs. R. Rorty
  1. Home /
  2. Archives /
  3. Vol. 71 No. 4 (2015) /
  4. Articles

“Is There a Problem about Fictional Discourse”? J. Searle vs. R. Rorty

Authors

  • Marzenna Cyzman Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika / Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12775/RF.2015.004

Keywords

fiction, pretended illocutions, language games, description so far/from now on, interpretive community, institution, essentialist text-centered theory, pragmatic conception, theories vs. telling stories

Abstract

John Searle’s and R. Rorty’s deliberations represent two different view on a problem of fictional discourse. Searle still locates the meaning of fiction primarily in the objective text, not in an extra-fictional order as his initial pragmatic perspective of research could suggest. Therefore, his conception is still representative of the text-centred, essentialist thinking in a reflection on fiction. R. Rorty formulates the thesis that Searle did not solve the problem of relating words to the world and did not present a coherent theory of fictional discourse. According to Rorty’s deliberations, the discourse about fiction should transform itself into criticism and this way, it may become the literary practice. Removing the notion of fiction as an essentialist feature of a text from ontologically and linguistically orientated research is characteristic of contemporary thinking about fiction. This cultural, pragmatic and ethical turn is aimed at the new type of discourse in which researching on semantics of the text is replaced by the research on the model of the world and its descriptions functioning in each interpretative community. In the present paper I try to answer some important questions founded on the comparison of these two different conceptions, for example: is the discourse about fictionality (philosophically or literary orientated) useful and sensible and what kind of functions does it fulfill. I claim, following Josef Mitterer’s non-dualiznig philosophy and Rorty’s considerations, that as long as there will be the institutions interested in such a discourse, there will be reasons to construct them and there is no need to be afraid of losing the sensibility of our work.

References

Austin J. (1986), How To Do Things With Words: the William James lectures delivered at Harvard University in 1955 / J. L. Austin; ed. by J. O. Urmson and M. Sbisa, Oxford.

Cyzman M., Beyond Objectiveness: Non-dualism and Fiction, “Constructivist Foundations” 8/2 (2013). The special issue: Non-dualism: A Conceptual Revision, Editors: Alexander Riegler & Stefan Weber, p. 174–175.

Cyzman M., The Logical Status of Fictional Discourse’ by John Searle – a still possible solution to an old problem?, “Logic and Logical Philosophy” 2011, t. 20, nr 4, s. 317–326.

Fish S., What Makes an Interpretation Acceptable? in: Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England 1980, p. 338–355.

Glasersfeld E. von, An introduction to radical constructivism, w: The Invented Reality: How Do We Know What We Believe We Know? (Contributions to Constructivism), ed. P. Watzlawick, W. W. Norton and Co, Norton, New York, s. 17–40.

Goodman N., Ways of worldmaking, Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis 1978.

Łebkowska A., Między teoriami a fikcją literacką, Universitas, Kraków 2001, p. 112–113.

Mitterer J., On Interpretation, “Constructivist Foundations” 8/2 (2013). The special issue: Non-dualism: A Conceptual Revision, Editors: Alexander Riegler & Stefan Weber, p. 143–147.

Mitterer J., Tamta strona filozofii. Przeciwko dualistycznej zasadzie poznania, trans. M. Łukasiewicz, Oficyna Naukowa, Warszawa 1996. Originally published as: J. Mitterer, Das Jenseits der Philosophie. Wider das dualistische Erkenntnisprinzip, Passagen, Vienna 1992.

Ohmann R. (1971), Speech Acts and the Definition of Literature, “Philosophy and Rhetoric” 4, nr 1, s. 1–19.

Ohmann R. (1973), Literature as Act, in: Approaches to Poetics, ed. S. Chatman, New York–London, s. 81–107.

Rorty R., Text and Lumps, in: R. Rorty, Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth. Philosophical Papers. Vol. 1, Cambridge University Press, 1995, p. 78–92.

Rorty R., Is There a Problem about Fictional Discourse? in: Consequences of Pragmatism (Essays: 1972-1980), University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1994, p. 110–138.

Schmidt S., Fictionality in literary and non-literary discourse, “Poetics” 9 (5–6), p. 525–546.

Searle J. R. (1975), The Logical Status of Fictional Discourse, „New Literary History” 6, p. 319–332.

Tomasik W. (1990), Od „etiolacji” do „ideologii szczerości”. Teoria aktów mowy a literatura, „Pamiętnik Literacki” z. 3, s. 115–144.

Ruch Filozoficzny

Downloads

  • PDF

Published

2016-10-17

How to Cite

1.
CYZMAN, Marzenna. “Is There a Problem about Fictional Discourse”? J. Searle vs. R. Rorty. Ruch Filozoficzny. Online. 17 October 2016. Vol. 71, no. 4, pp. 63-76. [Accessed 7 July 2025]. DOI 10.12775/RF.2015.004.
  • ISO 690
  • ACM
  • ACS
  • APA
  • ABNT
  • Chicago
  • Harvard
  • IEEE
  • MLA
  • Turabian
  • Vancouver
Download Citation
  • Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS)
  • BibTeX

Issue

Vol. 71 No. 4 (2015)

Section

Articles

Stats

Number of views and downloads: 946
Number of citations: 0

Search

Search

Browse

  • Browse Author Index
  • Issue archive

User

User

Current Issue

  • Atom logo
  • RSS2 logo
  • RSS1 logo

Information

  • For Readers
  • For Authors
  • For Librarians

Newsletter

Subscribe Unsubscribe

Language

  • English
  • Język Polski

Tags

Search using one of provided tags:

fiction, pretended illocutions, language games, description so far/from now on, interpretive community, institution, essentialist text-centered theory, pragmatic conception, theories vs. telling stories
Up

Akademicka Platforma Czasopism

Najlepsze czasopisma naukowe i akademickie w jednym miejscu

apcz.umk.pl

Partners

  • Akademia Ignatianum w Krakowie
  • Akademickie Towarzystwo Andragogiczne
  • Fundacja Copernicus na rzecz Rozwoju Badań Naukowych
  • Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla Polskiej Akademii Nauk
  • Instytut Kultur Śródziemnomorskich i Orientalnych PAN
  • Instytut Tomistyczny
  • Karmelitański Instytut Duchowości w Krakowie
  • Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego
  • Państwowa Akademia Nauk Stosowanych w Krośnie
  • Państwowa Akademia Nauk Stosowanych we Włocławku
  • Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Zawodowa im. Stanisława Pigonia w Krośnie
  • Polska Fundacja Przemysłu Kosmicznego
  • Polskie Towarzystwo Ekonomiczne
  • Polskie Towarzystwo Ludoznawcze
  • Towarzystwo Miłośników Torunia
  • Towarzystwo Naukowe w Toruniu
  • Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
  • Uniwersytet Komisji Edukacji Narodowej w Krakowie
  • Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika
  • Uniwersytet w Białymstoku
  • Uniwersytet Warszawski
  • Wojewódzka Biblioteka Publiczna - Książnica Kopernikańska
  • Wyższe Seminarium Duchowne w Pelplinie / Wydawnictwo Diecezjalne „Bernardinum" w Pelplinie

© 2021- Nicolaus Copernicus University Accessibility statement Shop