Storythinking : the new science of narrative intelligence
(Book)

Includes index.

"Narrative was divorced from philosophy in 375 BCE when Plato warned that it triggered passions and irrationality, and ever since it has been considered as rhetoric-it enhanced communication rather than thinking. Today, AI researchers define all types of intelligent thought-deduction, invention, problem-solving-as forms of logic. Logic is the source of mathematics, analytic philosophy, and other branches of truth-seeking; causal thinking is the source of narrative-and also of experimental science, philosophical speculation, and maxims of everyday ethics. Storythinking integrates philosophy, neuroscience, and narrative theory to demonstrate that it is storytelling, not logic, that has evolved to become the dominant power of the animal brain. Its dominance reflects its ability to nurture life's core biological activity: growth. Growth is contingent and temporal, which is why it fits uneasily into truth-seeking modes of philosophy. Growth is both physical and psychological-efforts to capture the latter dimension can be found in thinkers from Goethe to William James and W.E.B. DuBois and in recent advances in narrative cognition. Angus Fletcher exploits causal thinking's capacities of intellectual curiosity, affective perspective-taking, and experimental behavior to develop a narrative ethics that can help us respond to the challenges and opportunities of daily life in ways that yield both personal and public benefits"--,Provided by publisher.