thomblake comments on Missing the Trees for the Forest - Less Wrong

64 Post author: Yvain 22 July 2009 03:23AM

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Comment author: thomblake 22 July 2009 02:37:18PM 2 points [-]

But narrative is our primary means for understanding; it's where we get the context for situating our ideas. Even the 'self' is a story we tell ourselves, to give narrative unity to the disparate actions we take.

While many philosophers have written about this in recent years, I shall point to the one most likely to be respected here. Dan Dennett: The Self as a Center of Narrative Gravity

Comment author: colinmarshall 22 July 2009 02:59:38PM 1 point [-]

You're absolutely right; it's the overuse of narrative we need to be concerned about. Humanity can't get by without it, but one inch too much and we're in self-delusion territory.

Comment author: thomblake 22 July 2009 03:01:52PM 1 point [-]

Agreed. At least postmodernism got something right.