The world is complicated and difficult to navigate. Stories usually give you a simplified world where it's easier to understand and relate to. Just think of most religious stories and myths, they exist to explain something unexplainable (how the world was created) or how to behave in a society (cautionary tales and parabolas)
this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2023
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Asklemmy
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In philosophy, what you're asking about is called the paradox of fiction.
Sharing, and believing in, fictions is how distilled units of information are efficiently passed down generations and is one of the bedrocks of our development as a species. This is what allows us to have laws and corporations and agreeing to drive on particular side of the road.
Yuval Noah Harari covers this more eloquently in his book Sapiens. You would definitely dig the relevant chapters.
Yuval Noah Harari covers this more eloquently in his book Sapiens.
time to read it again I think. It is a wonderful book, but I dont remember reading about this particular topic in enough detail. Thank you for your comment
You are more than welcome! The chapter is called Unification of Humankind for anyone else interested, here is a little excerpt:
“Myths and fictions accustomed people, nearly from the moment of birth, to think in certain ways, to behave in accordance with certain standards, to want certain things, and to observe certain rules. They thereby created artificial instincts that enabled millions of strangers to cooperate effectively. This network of artificial instincts is called ‘culture’.”
time to read it again I think. It is a wonderful book, but I dont remember reading about this particular topic in enough detail. Thank you for your comment
haha, thank you again!