Fate, Time, and Language

The Pulitzer Prize finalist and author ofThe Pale KingandInfinite Jestweighs in on a philosophical controversy in this fascinating early work. In 1962, the philosopher Richard Taylor used six commonly accepted presuppositions to imply that human beings have no control over the future. David Foster Wallace not only took issue with Taylors method, which, according to him, scrambled the relations of logic, language, and the physical world, but also detected a semantic trick at the heart of Taylors argument.Fate, Time, and Languagepresents Wallaces brilliant critique of Taylors work. Written long before the publication of his fiction and essays, Wallaces thesis reveals his great skepticism of abstract thinking and any school of thought that abandons the very old traditional human verities that have to do with spirituality and emotion and community. As Wallace rises to meet the challenge to free will presented by Taylor, we witness the developing perspective of this major novelist, along with his struggle to establish solid logical ground for his convictions. This volume, edited by Steven M. Cahn and Maureen Eckert, reproduces Taylors original article and other works on fatalism cited by Wallace. James Ryersons introduction connects Wallaces early philosophical work to the themes and explorations of his later fiction, and Jay Garfield supplies a critical biographical epilogue.