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Re: Q: narrative
On Tue, 13 Aug 1996, Terry West wrote:
> and "tell a good story"--particularly in rebuttals. I believe
> Croasmun had a pretty good response to this concept, and hope I am
> remembering and paraphrasing it somewhat accurately (if not, I'll
> claim it as my own and absolve Earl from guilt). As I remember it,
To loosely paraphrase someone else (I believe it was Bruce Gronbeck or
Walter Fisher), one can argue WITHIN a story but not FROM a story. A
narrative can be very effective in illustrating or vivifying a point. By
itself, it cannot prove a point. In an old judging philosophy (I think
this is what Terry is referring to--and welcome back from "vacation,"
Terry) I said this in a much less elegant fashion. I think I contrasted
the narrative's coherence theory of truth to a correspondence theory of
truth. If there is an extended discussion I could elaborate, but I don't
want to bore anyone without provocation.
References:
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