The study examines cognitive rationality as to()l for problemsolving within the context of a
movement from determinism and monolithic universal Reason towards indeterminism and plurality.
It is contended that theories of literature do not provide an adequate conceptual framework, and
therefore, extensive use is made of pluralist fallibilism (Popper, Helmut Spinner) and chaos theory.
The philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche is viewed as a decisive influence in the shift towards plurality
and scepticism. In chapter 2, Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, a novel by Agatha Christie
and Gaston Leroux's Le mystere de Ia chambre jaune are discussed as examples of optimistic
rationalism. Chapter 3 indicates that Eco's II nome della rosa emphasizes the conjectural nature of
truth and objective knowledge, underpinned by a 'soft' rationalism which amounts to monopolistic
pluralism. Chapter 4 analyses the defeat of cognitive rationality by the complex interaction of a
multiplicity of independent causal series. The detectives' relationship with the feminine exemplifies
the interpenetration of rationality and the instinctual, while the mystery of the feminine is a
metaphor for impenetrable complexity. Chapter 5 shows that hypotheses concerning random
complex systems remain inconclusive. However, as the trajectory of a complex system can be
regulated, so reason can be viewed as the underlying regulative pattern (strange attractorl for an
infinite proliferation of hypotheses. Thus, despite .shifting conceptions of rationality and order, all
the detectives in the study accept objective truth as regulative principle and are involved in a
search for objective knowledge / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / D.Litt. et Phil. (Theory of literature)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/16256 |
| Date | 06 1900 |
| Creators | Van der Linde, G. P. L. (Gerhardus Philippus Leonardus) |
| Contributors | Grabe, R. C. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (146 leaves) |
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