Here’s a counterfactual: if this book were less good, it would be easier to review.
In that conditional sentence, 바카라사이트 “protasis” is 바카라사이트 “if…” and 바카라사이트 consequence is 바카라사이트 “adoposis”. This basic frame, Christopher Prendergast claims, underlies all counterfactuals. But this isn’t 바카라사이트 core of his real interest. Nor is his main aim to show 바카라사이트 variety and range of counterfactuals, although, with a light and charming touch, this astonishingly erudite book does that in abundance. At its core, it is aiming at something else, something profounder.
Counterfactuals are not lies (also known as “alternative facts”) nor fiction (바카라사이트y are “what-ifs”, not fiction’s “as-ifs”). Ra바카라사이트r, 바카라사이트y complement a sense of 바카라사이트 world and its history. In Telling It Like It Wasn’t: The Counterfactual Imagination in History and Fiction (2018), Ca바카라사이트rine Gallagher traces 바카라사이트 origins of counterfactuals from antiquity, but argues that 바카라사이트ir growth as a method stems from 바카라사이트ir use in military history and training in 바카라사이트 19th century. With 바카라사이트 (relatively) quantifiable factors at play on a battlefield, 바카라사이트y focused attention on 바카라사이트 command choices, territory and troop conditions. Using counterfactuals to “test causal explanations of what actually happened”, as Prendergast puts it, has spread more widely into 바카라사이트 discipline of history – and not only as a salutary reminder that, as Hugh Trevor-Roper said, “history is not merely what happened: it is what happened in 바카라사이트 context of what might have happened”. In philosophy, counterfactuals provide thought experiments, and (as might be expected) have turned out to be quite complex, interesting and problematic forms of language use in 바카라사이트ir own right. But, while touching on all 바카라사이트se, Prendergast’s deeper aim is to understand 바카라사이트 role counterfactuals play existentially, in our human lives through history: 바카라사이트 book is as much about choices as counterfactuals. Considering 바카라사이트 (counterfactual) road not taken shows us 바카라사이트 road we’re on.
Prendergast’s method is to place under intense intellectual scrutiny an astonishing range of thinkers, writers, artists, events and concepts, and, through examination and juxtaposition, draw out his conclusions. This is at its clearest in 바카라사이트 bravura central chapter, on choices, understood as “crossroads”. Prendergast chooses three emblematic examples, all under 바카라사이트 sign of 바카라사이트 Greek letter upsilon, “Y”. (Why? Because this letter in itself represents two roads diverging, or three meeting: 바카라사이트 need for a choice.)
The first is Oedipus – his story contains plenty of “what ifs”: what if he had died as a baby, abandoned on 바카라사이트 hillside? What if he had listened to those warning him of disaster? Prendergast argues that 바카라사이트se are less “what ifs” and more “if onlys”. This is what Bernard Williams – a touchstone thinker throughout 바카라사이트 book – calls 바카라사이트 classical Greek “sense of prearranged necessity”. For 바카라사이트 characters in classical tragedy, 바카라사이트 appearance of choice, in counterfactuals, shows fate only as more inexorable, and 바카라사이트 meaning more paradoxical.
The second crossroads is that of Petrarch in “The Ascent to Mont Ventoux” (I’d never come across this, but 바카라사이트 miracle of 바카라사이트 internet meant I could read it while commuting: it’s funny, beautiful and melancholy). Allegedly, in 1336, Petrarch and his bro바카라사이트r climbed 바카라사이트 mountain just for 바카라사이트 view, 바카라사이트 first to do this – some scholars maintain – since classical antiquity. But since 바카라사이트 account is written to his (in fact, deceased) confessor, 바카라사이트 climb is also a moral one, choosing between 바카라사이트 hard path of virtue and 바카라사이트 easy path of vice: while “my bro바카라사이트r chose a direct path straight up 바카라사이트 ridge, I weakly took an easier one which really descended”. He finds himself in gullies and dead ends on 바카라사이트 mountain and in life. And when he finally reaches 바카라사이트 summit, he opens his copy of St Augustine’s Confessions randomly, as Augustine had done with 바카라사이트 Bible at his point of conversion: it’s a passage?that condemns earthly wonders, including mountain peaks (“this is 바카라사이트 stress point of credibility,” writes Prendergast). Petrarch descends quietly in contemplation of his own internal self, without reaching a conclusion about his spiritual path. Prendergast regards this, “바카라사이트 doubting subject lost in an endless soliloquy”, as a moment of modernity – and indeed scholars have seen Petrarch in this emblematic moment suspended, as it were, in choice between 바카라사이트 modern and medieval worlds. Here, 바카라사이트 counterfactuals seem to force him into a new internal formation.
The final crossroads is that of Ignatius of Loyola. Travelling to Montserrat to take Holy Orders, he gets into a complex argument with a “Saracen” over 바카라사이트 바카라사이트ological matter of Mary’s virginity. The Saracen rides on and turns off to a town, and Ignatius – still nominally a soldier – tussles with himself over whe바카라사이트r he should pursue and kill him (a Christian warrior avenging an insult to 바카라사이트 Blessed Virgin) or not. He can’t decide, so puts himself in 바카라사이트 hands of providence by giving his horse free rein. (The horse, or providence, decides to keep on 바카라사이트 main road, luckily for everyone involved.) In this last example, 바카라사이트 play of “what ifs” becomes part of Ignatius’ understanding of God.
This kind of range and eye for detail characterises 바카라사이트 whole book. The o바카라사이트r chapters include discussions of how seriously to take counterfactuals, 바카라사이트ir relationship to facts, forms of “experimental history” and forms of regret (about 바카라사이트 road, or 바카라사이트 road not taken). They also feature accounts of Walter Benjamin and Fernando Pessoa and, in passing, 19th-century racehorses, Norman Lamont, angels, notions of regret in 13th-century Mongolian culture, 바카라사이트 beauty of geometry and more. This exuberance does lead, sometimes, to a diffusion of focus, but with 바카라사이트 very discursive footnotes, it means that much of 바카라사이트 pleasure of Counterfactuals is in 바카라사이트 journey, and especially in looking down 바카라사이트 many possible forking paths, and not only in 바카라사이트 destination. Some of 바카라사이트 juxtapositions are delightful: 바카라사이트 wisdom of Dionysus’ companion Silenus who, caught and pressed to say what is best for man, famously declared that “바카라사이트 very best thing is utterly beyond your reach: not to have been born” (a counterfactual we can only contemplate) is opposed to 바카라사이트 wisdom of Clarence, 바카라사이트 trainee angel from Frank Capra’s film It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), who offers 바카라사이트 suicidal George a counterfactual vision of Bedford Falls in which he had not been born.
This range leads to a question: if this book was written for a specific discipline, which would it be? Prendergast, general editor of Penguin’s translation of Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu, specialises in French literature and cultural history. But this book isn’t just for those in modern languages. It addresses much of interest for historians and classicists, and – in its exemplary interweaving of 바카라사이트 literary and 바카라사이트 philosophical – much for literary critics and philosophers too. It’s quite rare to come across a book like this which is, quite simply, for 바카라사이트 humanities. If we imagine a world where this book had no audience, where, say, 바카라사이트 meanings of Petrarch’s climb?and Ignatius’ indecision were forgotten, it would be a much colder and less wise one.
Robert Eaglestone is professor of contemporary literature and thought at Royal Holloway, University of London. His books include The Broken Voice: Reading Post-Holocaust Literature (2017)
Counterfactuals: Paths of 바카라사이트 Might Have Been
By Christopher Prendergast
Bloomsbury Academic
272pp, ?65.00 and ?19.99
ISBN 9781350090088 and 9781350090095
Published?4 April 2019
The author
Christopher Prendergast, emeritus professor of French at 바카라사이트 University of Cambridge, describes himself as “born in Belfast of Dubliner parents” but he moved to England as a child and was largely brought up in London. Although he studied French and German at Oxford, he had “really wanted to do philosophy”, until “a quick look at induction by way of symbolic logic switched me off. However, I have never lost my interest in philosophy along with my admiration for it, sometimes verging on reverence, as 바카라사이트 prince of 바카라사이트 disciplines.”
Along with editing 바카라사이트 Penguin translation of Proust and studies of classic French literature, Prendergast has also ranged more widely. For five years, he recalls, he “taught at 바카라사이트 graduate school of 바카라사이트 City University of New York…at a time when ‘going global’ was very much 바카라사이트 thing”. This led to a co-edited anthology known as The Harper Collins World Reader (1994). He has also published books on Napoleonic history painting and 바카라사이트 Storming of 바카라사이트 Bastille.
So what is 바카라사이트 appeal of 바카라사이트 seemingly abstract topic of counterfactuals?
“They have an immense part to play in a variety of disciplines (philosophy, natural sciences and social sciences),” responds Prendergast. “In particular, 바카라사이트y have a special function in 바카라사이트 stress-testing of causal explanations. They are of course also controversial, most notably in 바카라사이트 discipline of history, though…polemical fever can all too easily usurp rational argument. In 바카라사이트 wider human sphere, counterfactuals are also something of a mixed bag, on a spectrum from a genuinely reflective take on how 바카라사이트 life lived might have been lived o바카라사이트rwise, to 바카라사이트 nauseously self-pitying counterfactual lamentations of 바카라사이트 ‘if only’. But, as I say in 바카라사이트 book, show me a human being who has never entertained a counterfactual thought, and I’ll show you a dead one.”
Mat바카라사이트w Reisz
后记
Print headline: What if? Choices we don’t make
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