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A review by piccoline
Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will by James Ryerson, David Foster Wallace, Steven M. Cahn, Jay L. Garfield, Maureen Eckert
5.0
This is a well constructed book. One might be forgiven wondering whether the publication of DFW's undergrad philosophy thesis is anything other than an attempt to wring a bit of money out of the name. ("Think we can fool some people into buying a book on modal logic since it's got David Foster Wallace's name on it?") That's not what this is.
At first I was tempted, I'll admit, to simply skip straight to Wallace's work, but I was seduced by the inclusion of various papers that Wallace read in preparation for his project. They are rather readable, though there were definitely times I was glad had some familiarity with symbolic logic. Having read the background, I was able to enjoy Wallace's work much more deeply, and to shake my head with better considered amazement at his level even as an undergraduate. This was actual theoretical movement forward, helping to settle arguments that had been rattling around for years. And amidst the heavy modal logic going there are various recognizably clever and mischievous DFW touches.
Even if you don't end up too jazzed about the modal logic, the opening essay "A Head that Throbbed Heartlike" and the closing remembrance from DFW's advisor for that senior thesis make this book well worth the price.
After reading this, it is also true that I am both grateful that DFW chose to pursue his project in fiction and convinced that he was in fact continuing a philosophical project as he did so.
At first I was tempted, I'll admit, to simply skip straight to Wallace's work, but I was seduced by the inclusion of various papers that Wallace read in preparation for his project. They are rather readable, though there were definitely times I was glad had some familiarity with symbolic logic. Having read the background, I was able to enjoy Wallace's work much more deeply, and to shake my head with better considered amazement at his level even as an undergraduate. This was actual theoretical movement forward, helping to settle arguments that had been rattling around for years. And amidst the heavy modal logic going there are various recognizably clever and mischievous DFW touches.
Even if you don't end up too jazzed about the modal logic, the opening essay "A Head that Throbbed Heartlike" and the closing remembrance from DFW's advisor for that senior thesis make this book well worth the price.
After reading this, it is also true that I am both grateful that DFW chose to pursue his project in fiction and convinced that he was in fact continuing a philosophical project as he did so.