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Fate, Time, And Language: An Essay On Free Will (2010)

by David Foster Wallace(Favorite Author)

3.69 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0231151578 (ISBN13: 9780231151573)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Columbia University Press

review 1: My logic admittedly has a charming patina (though I practice a rudimentary form of it daily as a database manager), and I had just enough of the modal variety as a philosophy undergrad to whet my stone and appetite but not enough to carve a meal, which is all to say, if you've enjoyed DFW's writing and have strayed some from your philosophy undergrad years, this is a good way to get a little closer to the writer while simultaneously brushing away some of that charm, er, patina. I had a little thrill* hearing that characteristic voice muffled throughout the paper and then unmistakably blaring out at moments, as if irrepressible.Now that the voice is gone, I feel like I lost an older brother I only came to know after it was too late so I've been straining to hear every bit t... morehat helps me recognize that person whose existence, though only vaguely known to me, I surely felt with kinship from beyond my ken.*Incidentally, when drawing portraits, there's a similar sudden thrill of recognition as just the right proportion and combination of gestured marks gives a little click in the brain that says excitedly, "Yes, that's the person!"
review 2: James Ryerson's introduction is marvelous. Although he describes "seeming inscrutability" of Wallace's forthcoming thesis (he provides a sample sentence that made NO sense to me), Ryerson gives extremely lucid background on the complex philosophical theories that Wallace wrestled with. Ryerson manages to make Wittgenstein's treatises regarding solipsism not only approachable, but very comprehensible. Additionally, he manages to weave in bits of Wallace's personal life and to show how many of his (DFW's) personally held philosophies informed his fiction.Part I: The Background is hilarious. It certainly isn't intended to be funny--it's 100 pages of scholarly back-and-forth over the issue of fatalism. It begins with Richard Taylor's simple 6-point proof that we can no better determine future events than we can past events. His explanation is light in tone, extremely easy to follow, and, to an extent, self-deprecating (in the sense that he doesn't want to buy into fatalism and admits it seems illogical). The firestorm of criticism his theory unleashes is what is hilarious. I couldn't help picturing old gray men, upon reading his article, exasperatedly emitting "Oh humph humph harumph humph" and dropping their monocles into their brandy snifters with a final "Well I never!". Their subsequent refutations all focused on Taylor's (mis)use of language, often in very complicated terms. Taylor's rejoinders, always light, almost whimsical, claimed they were missing the point. All very entertaining, and the fatalist "proof" is interesting in itself. Part II: Wallace's undergraduate honor's philosophy thesis. While I could handle (and, I'm proud to say follow) the 2-8 page philosophical articles in Part I, 100 pages was just too much for me. Still, it was interesting to see bits of DFW's "personality" peak their ways through even the formal, academic writing in his thesis. What's more is the fact that he pretty much invented a whole new philosophical theory/theorum and he was only a senior in college. I wish I was that smart then; I read my master's thesis now and am often aghast at how poor some of it is; I can't imagine producing a thesis of this caliber as an undergrad! less

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