Philosophy and literature and the crisis of metaphysics

Since Antiquity, the relationship between philosophy and literature has been highly ambivalent. Thus, in Plato’s Republic the poet is opposed to the philosopher, representing emotion and not reason, inspiration and not knowledge. This traditional opposition between the conceptual philosopher and the inspirational poet appears in a new light with the epistemological revalorization of literature observable in particular since the late 18 th century. The crisis of rational philosophy in the wake of the subjectivist Kantian turn and the insight into the contingency of human knowledge lead to the emergence of a new literary philosophical thought which, through its ambiguity, mirrors the epistemological uncertainty of Modernity and the irreductibility of existence to any kind of episteme . The predominance of philosophy is progressively called into question, the boundaries between philosophy and literature fade away or give way to innovative forms of multi-faceted writing, causing the need for a redefinition of both disciplines, namely with regard to the question of whether philosophy or literature is best able to address epistemological, metaphysical, aesthetic, and ethical questions. The present volume tries to give an account of the implications associated with the necessary redefinition of the relationship between philosophy and literature in an interdisciplinary and transversal perspective, revolving around two axes of reflection: The first part deals with the particular epistemological potentialities specific to philosophy and to literature, whereas the second part focuses on the dialogue between philosophy and literature, primarily through the introduction of philosophical reflection into works of literature.