Peter Lamarque on Literature and Truth
Philosophy Bites
Nigel Warburton
4.6 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 14 September 2014
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Many people have claimed that one of the benefits of reading writers like Dostoevsky and Shakespeare is that they convey important truths about the human condition. Peter Lamarque is sceptical about this way of speaking about literature. He explains why in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is |
| 0:03.2 | This is Philosophy Bites with me Nigel Warburton and me David Edmonds. |
| 0:07.4 | Philosophy Bites is entirely unfunded. |
| 0:10.0 | Please help us keep it going by subscribing or donating at |
| 0:13.7 | W.w. dot philosophy bites.com. |
| 0:16.7 | Great works of literature are great because they reveal important truths about |
| 0:20.9 | human nature and the human condition. That might be regarded as too obvious |
| 0:25.3 | to be worth stating. Except that it's a claim Peter Lamarck which is the challenge. |
| 0:30.3 | Peter Lamarck, welcome to Philosophy Bites. |
| 0:32.4 | Thank you, Nigel. Glad to be here. Peter Le Mark, welcome to Philosophy Bites. |
| 0:32.5 | Thank you, Nigel. |
| 0:33.5 | Glad to be here. |
| 0:34.5 | The topic we're going to focus on is literature and truth. |
| 0:38.5 | Some people argue that the reason why we should read a novel like Dostoevsky's crime and punishment is because it reveals |
| 0:47.2 | something true at a deep level about the human condition. Is that a plausible view? I'm a bit skeptical about that. I'm |
| 0:56.9 | skeptical that the idea of truth or the idea of knowledge or insight that these are the right ideas or the right idioms |
| 1:07.8 | for finding value in the sorts of novels that you're talking about. |
| 1:13.0 | Maybe Tolstai's novels or Dosteevsky's novels. |
| 1:16.0 | There is a tradition which sees those novels as revealing truths about human nature, |
| 1:24.0 | what it's like to be a human in a certain situation and so on. |
| 1:28.0 | And I can accept a lot of those intuitions, |
| 1:31.0 | but I'm skepticalical that truth and knowledge are the right terms to describe |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Nigel Warburton, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Nigel Warburton and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.