Philosophies of Crime Fiction

By Josef Hoffmann, Carolyn Kelly, Nadia Majid, Johanna da Rocha Abreu

Oldcastle Books

Copyright © 2013 Josef Hoffmann
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-84344-139-7

Contents

Introduction,
1. Crime Fiction and Philosophy: Introduction and Overview,
2. Crime Fiction’s Emergence from the Spirit of Western Philosophy,
3. The Rational World of Sherlock Holmes,
4. Gilbert Keith Chesterton’s Christian Philosophy,
5. Hammett’s Pragmatism,
6. Wittgenstein, PI, and the Mystery of the Missing Link,
7. Albert Camus and the Philosophy of Crime,
8. Jorge Luis Borges’ Logic of Staging,
9. Death in Crime Fiction and Philosophy,
10. The Consolation of Crime Fiction is Stronger than the Consolation of Philosophy,

CHAPTER 1

Crime Fiction and Philosophy: Introduction and Overview

Crime fiction and philosophy — how might they be related? Firstly, we can analyse the influence of philosophy on writers of crime fiction and their oeuvre. Secondly, crime fiction may have influenced philosophers and their writings. There is a third possibility, the philosophy-thriller, composed of philosophical texts and narrative strategies commonly found in crime fiction. I am thinking here of books such as Markus Thiele’s HirnStröme and Tibor Fischer’s The Thought Gang. However, I shall not address such hybrids here since they appear to me to be of little significance and even less appeal. This leaves only the first two possibilities. The mutual influence of philosophy and crime fiction is manifold and can be made explicit by way of a quotation or implied more subtly in the structure of the text. Further, it may include ways of thinking or argumentation, themes, narrative styles or aesthetic reflections regarding the literary form. However, when we examine the interrelationship between crime fiction and philosophy, we encounter a fundamental problem. Globally, the sheer volume of crime fiction is so large that no one can claim to have read even just a tenth of it. The number of philosophical texts is equally overwhelming, which makes it necessary to confine oneself to selected texts.

I have restricted myself, firstly, to works and writers of the western tradition and, secondly, to the so-called classics. Even this would normally be too large an area to cover, which is why the third restriction is a completely subjective one. I include crime writers whom I have enjoyed reading during at least some stage of my life. A further restriction results from the choice of topics: crime fiction rather than philosophy is of primary interest here. An expert in philosophy will hardly come across anything new here, while I hope that readers of crime fiction will gain deeper insight into their favourite books.

a) The philosophical thoughts of crime writers and crime fiction

The title of this book deliberately reads Philosophies of Crime Fiction instead of The Philosophy of Crime Fiction. In view of historical changes and the diversity of crime fiction and philosophical writings, one must resist the temptation to model the philosophy of the crime narrative. Umberto Eco – the crime writer, philosopher, cultural theorist and more, whose historical detective novel The Name of the Rose is enriched with philosophical and theological allusions, ideas and explanations, – already succumbed to this temptation. In his postscript to The Name of the Rose he adds a chapter entitled ‘The Metaphysics of the Crime and Detective Story (romanzo poliziesco)’. In it, Eco explains that the pleasure