“In many cultures, ….it is important to understand that stories are not explanations. They are neither true nor false because they do not describe ‘factual’ events; they do not claim that they do either. “
“Neither true nor false...” Not so. We gather such stories and treasure them. But at the end of the day, we label them fiction (or mythology, if some portion of humanity believed them to be true at some point) and know better than to go looking for Hogwarts. We know fiction is not corresponding with reality, not part of the map, in other words—not true. In every sense that matter, we treat fiction as false.
All that is good and proper—as long as such works don’t claim to describe factual events.
“In many cultures, ….it is important to understand that stories are not explanations. They are neither true nor false because they do not describe ‘factual’ events; they do not claim that they do either. “
Any comments on the above?
“Neither true nor false...” Not so. We gather such stories and treasure them. But at the end of the day, we label them fiction (or mythology, if some portion of humanity believed them to be true at some point) and know better than to go looking for Hogwarts. We know fiction is not corresponding with reality, not part of the map, in other words—not true. In every sense that matter, we treat fiction as false.
All that is good and proper—as long as such works don’t claim to describe factual events.
Are you looking for an explanation or opinions?