The day and the not-day: On possible worlds and freedom (some foundational considerations)
Abstract
This paper is divided into 1. Possible Worlds: An Approach Reading Doležel’s Heterocosmica; 2. Freedom as a Constituent and Horizon of Possible Worlds. Agreeing with Doležel’s formulation that fictional worlds of literature are incomplete, I proceed to plead for a semiotic pragmatics within a historical epistemology and to foreground the PW’s story, while doubting the usefulness of his modalities. Inescapably, a story and its PW need to be approached syntagmatically and paradigmatically (Jakobson). Part 2 aims to give some orienting suggestions about what does freedom do for understanding PWs, and what do PWs do for understanding freedom. The PWs of “word art” include a vision of limits, a possible self-rule within them; they are clearly and openly probes; and finally they are suffused with potential power and yet radical. As all arts, they are akin to phronesis, practical wisdom that discusses right choices – that is, freedom and creativity, Whitman’s “I was thinking the day most splendid, till I saw what the not-day exhibited”.
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