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Ricoeur’s
narrative theory applied to science
Sanja Ivic
Institute for European Studies, Department of philosophy,
Belgrade University,
Serbia. E-mail: aurora1@yubc.net.
Accepted 25th August, 2009. |
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Ricoeur’s narrative theory can be applied to scientific
theories. Scientific theories as well as narrative plots
represent a “synthesis of heterogeneous” based on productive
imagination. On the other hand, narrative plots can be
perceived as an answer to the “why?” questions as well as
scientific explanations. In this paper it will be argued
that an analogy between narrative and scientific paradigms
can be made. In the XVIII and XIX century both narrative and
scientific paradigms aspired to represent a mimesis of
reality. However, in XX century those realist aspirations
were rejected or supplemented with an idea of fragmented and
mind-dependent reality. This point of view opened the
question of the role of non-existent (and non-referential
concepts) in science. In literature, novels without
traditional plots arose.
Key words:
Employment, explanation, narrative, science, realism. |
