The Value of Literature for Consciousness Research and Ethics

The paper argues that integrating literary studies into consciousness research can add an ethical and existential dimension often missing from empirical work. It contends that fictional narratives, particularly those rejecting essentialist ideas of self and agency, can help normalize reductionist scientific explanations of consciousness by presenting them in emotionally and experientially accessible forms. Using Virginia Woolf's The Waves as an example, the author shows how the novel's non-anthropocentric and non-essentialist portrayal of selfhood overlaps with materialist theories in neuroscience and philosophy, but frames them in poetic terms that highlight their emancipatory potential, allowing readers to relate to these ideas on a personal level.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The paper proposes to integrate literary studies in consciousness research to develop a strong ethical and existential dimension in the field. More specifically, it considers the value of fictional narrative for developing concepts of selfhood and personal identity that cohere with the reductionist explanations of human consciousness and self in modern empirical consciousness research. My central claim is that looking to the literary representations of human consciousness and existence that reject or are free from conventional essentialist ideas of self, agency, and anthropocentrism can help 'normalize' the reductionist scientific descriptions of humans and reduce their psychologically and socio-culturally disruptive impact. The paper uses Virginia Woolf's The Waves as an example, showing how the novel's non-anthropocentric and non-essentialist conceptions of self and consciousness overlap with materialist theories in neuroscience and -philosophy but present these in a distinctive narrative framework and poetic terms that bring out the inherent emancipatory potential of the materialist explanation of human existence and offer the reader the possibility of relating to these experientially and emotionally.