Articles

Abstract

The philosophical debate over narrativity concentrates on the narratives, the stories we might or might not tell about ourselves, and not on the mental process that is engaged in creating those narratives. It is, however, the process that is the key to the issue, not the product. Narrativity, the mental process involved in producing narratives, or form- fnding over time, is what I will argue should be seen as primary. In this article, I will look at the arguments of Louis Mink, Arthur Danto and Aristotle regarding the value of narratives, and I will take those arguments further, to show how they support my claim that the Narrativity that leads to narratives is intrinsic to our nature. I will argue that how we use language even to discuss mundane day-to-day actions and experiences shows how essential the narrative process is to our mental life, that it is in fact an intrinsic feature of our mental activity. Narrativity is the way we all make sense of our experience, and the only way we are able to engage in long term projects, even if those projects require continual revision of the narrative that guides them.