Hamlet tells Horatio that there are more things in heaven and earth than
are dreamt of in his philosophy. In Double Vision, philosopher and
literary critic Tzachi Zamir argues that there are more things in Hamlet
than are dreamt of--or at least conceded--by most philosophers. Making
an original and persuasive case for the philosophical value of
literature, Zamir suggests that certain important philosophical insights
can be gained only through literature. But such insights cannot be
reached if literature is deployed merely as an aesthetic sugaring of a
conceptual pill. Philosophical knowledge is not opposed to, but is
consonant with, the literariness of literature. By focusing on the
experience of reading literature as literature and not philosophy, Zamir
sets a theoretical framework for a philosophically oriented literary
criticism that will appeal both to philosophers and literary critics.
Double Vision is concerned with the philosophical understanding
induced by the aesthetic experience of literature. Literary works can
function as credible philosophical arguments--not ones in which claims
are conclusively demonstrated, but in which claims are made plausible.
Such claims, Zamir argues, are embedded within an experiential structure
that is itself a crucial dimension of knowing. Developing an account of
literature's relation to knowledge, morality, and rhetoric, and
advancing philosophical-literary readings of Richard III, Macbeth,
Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet, and King
Lear, Zamir shows how his approach can open up familiar texts in
surprising and rewarding ways.
