{"id":98,"date":"2025-12-30T16:21:43","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T16:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/?p=98"},"modified":"2025-12-30T16:21:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T16:21:43","slug":"enactment-or-exploration-two-roles-for-philosophy-in-the-novel-of-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/?p=98","title":{"rendered":"Enactment or Exploration: Two Roles for Philosophy in the Novel of Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>By&nbsp;<strong>Donald Nordberg<\/strong>, manuscript of a paper published in&nbsp;<em>Philosophy and Literature<\/em>&nbsp;(2023), Vol. 47, Issue 1, pp. 108-127; doi:<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1353\/phl.2023.a899681\">10.1353\/phl.2023.a899681<\/a>; \u00a9 Johns Hopkins University Press, please cite published version<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Abstract.<\/strong>&nbsp;I examine the often-denigrated concept of the novel of ideas from its inception and critical decline to its relatively recent revival. Using a variant of the exploitation-exploration dilemma in psychology, I suggest that early usage referred to works that exploit philosophical principles\u2014or better, enact them\u2014by setting philosophical positions in conflict. By contrast, use of the concept for more recent works sees characters and plots exploring philosophical stances. The shift corresponds with the greater attention paid to complexity and ambiguity that are hallmarks of continental philosophy and neopragmatism, and with it greater need to explore philosophical stances through fiction.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/donnordbergwriting.substack.com\/p\/enactment-or-exploration-two-roles\">Read more<\/a> at<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"179\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DNwriting-banner-large-1024x179.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-94\" style=\"aspect-ratio:5.720948309366499;width:485px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DNwriting-banner-large-1024x179.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DNwriting-banner-large-300x53.png 300w, https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DNwriting-banner-large-768x135.png 768w, https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DNwriting-banner-large.png 1204w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By&nbsp;Donald Nordberg, manuscript of a paper published in&nbsp;Philosophy and Literature&nbsp;(2023), Vol. 47, Issue 1, pp. 108-127; doi:10.1353\/phl.2023.a899681; \u00a9 Johns Hopkins University Press, please cite published version Abstract.&nbsp;I examine the often-denigrated concept of the novel of ideas from its inception and critical decline to its relatively recent revival. Using a variant of the exploitation-exploration dilemma in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/?p=98\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Enactment or Exploration: Two Roles for Philosophy in the Novel of Ideas<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criticism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions\/99"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}