The academics have not approached Pratchett about the book, South saying they “figured he’d think it was all a bit of nonsense taking his work seriously in this way”, although adding that “secretly, I think he’d be pleased”. So much of Pratchett’s writings deal with value in the world, its origin, its origin in our beliefs, in our desire and need to value the world, and how it needs to be rigorously maintained through our practices.” “He speaks to the need for a rational faith or belief in values like dignity, or even an afterlife … Then you have Carrot and Vimes, or the relativist versus the moral absolutist. Pratchett’s character Death “is profoundly Kantian,” Held continued. WHAT THINGS SEEM TO BE MAY NOT BE WHAT THEY ARE.’ This is a truth that Pratchett relatedly acknowledges and tries to get his readers to acknowledge as well.”įor Held, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Central Arkansas, the best satire “understands the world it interrogates and offers a new or novel take or window onto that world”. “Or, as Death puts it so well: ‘DO NOT PUT ALL YOUR TRUST IN ROOT VEGETABLES. “Pratchett is a very smart man, a gifted writer, and understands as well as any philosopher the power of storytelling and the problems humans face in making sense of their lives and the world they live in,” South said. South, associate professor of philosophy at Marquette University, is adamant Pratchett’s novels “hold up to sustained philosophical reflection”. Edited by philosophy professors and Pratchett fans James South and Jacob Held, the collection of essays examines questions including “Plato, the Witch, and the Cave: Granny Weatherwax and the Moral Problem of Paternalism”, “Equality and Difference: Just because the Disc Is Flat, Doesn’t Make It a Level Playing Field for All”, “Hogfather and the Existentialism of Søren Kierkegaard”, and “the Importance of Being in the Right Trouser Leg of Time”.
0 kommentar(er)
