Literary Works and the Metaphysics of Influence

Kari Hanson-Park

doi:10.25038/am.v0i29.571

Authors

Kari Hanson-Park Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i29.571

Abstract

When interpreting literary works, interpreters almost always rely on connections between the literary works and other aspects of our world – e.g., historical time periods, cultures, other artworks, artistic movements, and so on. But how can we explain both the nature and role of these connections? I argue that this can be fruitfully explained with reference to relations that exist between literary works and other aspects of human culture, which is a class of relations that I call ‘interpretation-relevant relations.’ I also argue that an important component of these relations is a mind-independent connection of influence between the relata. Finally, I argue that these interpretation-relevant relations (with the component of influence) can be taken to be real, mind-independent elements of the world, if we recognize that literary works are public artifacts and so are part of the fabric of human culture, which depends on human minds for its existence and persistence but not for its ontological nature. All of this can hold even if interpretations are the products of individual minds interacting intentionally with literary works.

Author Biography

Kari Hanson-Park, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA

Kari Hanson-Park received her Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Miami in 2022. Her dissertation is titled “The Practice and Philosophy of Literary Interpretation”. Her research is interdisciplinary, engaging with literary criticism, cognitive literary studies, and disability studies, as well as areas of philosophy that include aesthetics, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind. Kari has taught courses in philosophy at Western Michigan University, the University of Miami, and Albright College.

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