Fiction as a tool for complex morality

As anyone who knows me could tell you, I am an intensely logical person and an avid reader of fiction. Those two facts never appeared inconsistent until I recently read an article about how Jorge Luis Borges used philosophers as a source of inspiration for his fiction. When I thought about this, I came to an epiphany: a ton of my engagement with complex moral issues has come through reading fiction. When you consider that, it is a strange fact indeed – why would I use fiction to consider complex moral issues instead of much more direct, logical philosophical arguments? Shouldn’t the great philosophers of different ages that compose arguments in the most rational and straightforward manners be the most effective way to engage with moral issues?

This question puzzled me for a few days until I came up with what I think explains the phenomenon (at least in my case). There are two main reasons why I think this happens. One, even though this is not an original argument, I think it bears mentioning: academic writing is often inaccessible to most people. Reading philosophy papers requires an understanding of notation and archaic structures that honestly confuses most readers. While that’s the easy target, I don’t think it’s the most important reason. I think the real reason that we often can think deeply about moral issues while reading fiction is due to our suspension of disbelief.

Suspension of disbelief is a term used to describe readers “suspending judgment on the implausibility of a narrative” while engaging with it. This is immensely important, I think, because I think this description belies a deeper sentiment – we are actually more open-minded when reading fiction. We go into fiction looking for fantastic tales and for our commonly held notions of reality (and truth) to be challenged. Even though we usually mean this in the fantastical sense (e.g. a world of wizards in Harry Potter), I think the unintentional consequence of this framework is that we are more receptive to ideas that we may not have given a second glance to in other settings.

Take The Picture of Dorian Gray’s strong views on hedonism or the rational self-interest espoused in Atlas Shrugged. Normally, I would just reject these seemingly outlandish viewpoints as silly and not spend the necessary mental energy to actually consider them in depth. While reading these novels, however, I am lulled into a false sense of security while engaging with the plot, and before I know it – my deeply held beliefs are being challenged in a way they never have before. The arguments are made in a more indirect manner than they would in a philosophy paper since they play out in the characters’ stories, but I end up fully internalizing the argument by reading the entire book with rapt attention. Once finished, I am forced to reflect on who I sided with in the novel, whether I felt justice was served, and other feelings directly tied to the moral issues under consideration. This is my best guess as to why fiction plays such an important role in our understanding of moral issues.

Five books as tools for complex morality

• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
• Mahabharata