Expanding the traditional paradigm, the reader's experience of philosophical literature

Abstract

Texts of philosophical literature are rejected. or under-appreciated. because philosophical literature is inappropriately evaluated. according to the traditional philosophical paradigm, according to which philosophical writing should consist of "fine and subtle distinctions, [the) circumspect marshaling of argument, [the] cautious and qualified inferences" (Danto 20). The traditional paradigm is not equipped to handle philosophical texts which adopt non-standard modes of expression and therefore do not meet the above requirements. These norms are what must be altered in order to "solve" the problems caused by the four texts I consider in the thesis: Jean Paul Sartre's La nausee, Albert Camus' L'etranger, Plato's Plraedrus, and Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Using the principles of reader response criticism developed by Wolfgang Iser, I show that the reader's experience of these texts is the key to effecting this shift. The indeterminate nature of philosophical literature creates a complex triadic relationship of author, text and reader, which necessitates an equally complex account of textual meaning.