"Strong" narrativity

a response to Hutto

Anthony Rudd

pp. 43-49

in: Leon de Bruin, Maureen Sie (eds), Narrativity, interpretation and responsibility, Phenomenology and the cognitive sciences 15 (1), 2016.

Abstract

This paper responds to Dan Hutto's paper, "Narrative Self-Shaping: a Modest Proposal'. Hutto there attacks the "strong" narrativism defended in my recent book, "Self, Value and Narrative' and in recent work by Marya Schechtman. I rebut Hutto's argument that non-narrative forms of evaluative self-shaping can plausibly be conceived, and defend the notion of implicit narrative against his criticisms. I conclude by briefly indicating some difficulties that arise for the "modest" form of narrativism that Hutto defends.