Both Nancy Miller and Harry Frankfurt approach the truth from similar points of view. In her article “The Entangled Self,” Miller questions the motives of certain purveyors of memoirs. One is Amos Oz. He indicates that the reader shouldn’t be asking whether or not the details of the memoir are factual, but should be asking whether the lessons learned within the memoir might apply to the reader. Miller suggests that Oz’s response is so inappropriate as to call into question whether his book is fiction rather than a memoir. Here, and throughout the essay, Miller calls for close attention to fact in order to maintain the validity of memoir as a genre. In On Truth, Frankfurt attempts to explain why truth is important and valuable. He insists that only with an adherence to facts and firmly rooted standards can the society depend on truth as utilitarian and reliable, and therefore valuable. Both Miller and Frankfurt value truth based on hard facts and not on points of view or derivations of relative socio-moral positions.
Posted by mattl0713 on December 5, 2008
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