Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will [Paperback]

This book centers around David Foster Wallace's undergraduate honors thesis in philosophy. It begins with a very well-written and interesting introduction to the philosophical argument DFW takes to task in his thesis, an argument by Taylor that takes a set of commonly accepted philosophical presuppositions and entails fatalism. The book then presents Taylor's article, originally published in the early 1960s, and a flurry of (sometimes heated) responses by other philosophers. All of this serves as the background for Wallace's work, which extends (seemingly substantially) upon those other responses.

I'm not a philosopher by either trade or background, and so I won't claim to have followed every nuance of all of the arguments, and as a reader, I found the back-and-forth regarding Taylor's original argument less interesting than either the introduction or DFW's contribution. However, the thesis itself is lucid (and I think easier to follow than several of the other arguments, even if it is not particularly light reading), and in a word, satisfying. It seems to me that David Foster Wallace was an exceptionally gifted person, and so I am glad that the editors and contributors put forth the effort to make it available. It was also enjoyable to detect elements of his literary style even at this early stage of his writing.

Based on this book alone, I'm not convinced that David Foster Wallace found the question of free will (as the subtitle might suggest) all that vexing or in need of defense - it seems as likely that he was concerned about the imprecise use of language and the confusion it may lead to - that doesn't detract from the book in any way. Very enjoyable for fans of DFW or, say, modal semantics.

Not an easy book to read. I had read a review of this book in the Washington Post and was not prepared for the scholastic nature of the writing. Nonetheless, even if you don't have a degree in philosophy, you will get a LOT of things to think about with this book. Just don't expect to take it to the beach. Much to much in this book is mind expanding and not even reconcilable but well worth the effort. If you recall Bill Clinton's comment during his impeachment hearing when he said, 'it depends on the meaning of is.' Well, this book makes sense of what he meant - not in direct reference to him, but in analysis of the parsing of words which is fundamental when trying to get to the truth of anything.

This book is really two books, and the title is misleading. First, it is a philosophical inquiry into the concept/idea of Fatalism (an argument that what happens is all that can possibly happen. This argument subsumes Determinism and Predestination.) by Philosophy professors and then, the then student Wallace's critique of their arguments in his unpublished senior thesis: "Richard Taylor's `Fatalism' and the Semantics of Physical Modality." (1984-1985.) Second, it is an incomplete, biographical look into the life and mind and death of David Foster Wallace, 1962-2008.

I took Logic in college some 40+ years ago and, believe it or not, was able to follow the "Fatalist" discussion. On page 97 of the book I wrote in the margin "Idiots All." I think that was Wallace's position, too, but he was too nice a person to say that right out. AND, his father was a Philosophy professor and his mother an English Prof. I did get lost midway through Wallace's paper when he got into "A FORMAL DEVICE FOE REPRESENTING AND EXPLAINING THE TAYLOR INEQUIVALENCE: FEATURES AND IMPLICATIONS OF THE INTENSIONAL-PHYSICAL-MODALITY SYSTEM J." A device Wallace devised to question the professional Philosophy professors position's. In his (DFW) paper he combines his parents' two Fields, English & Philosophy, to pretty much prove the esteemed professors - fools. He shows how they bloviate to excess under the guise of learn-ed discourse and misuse words to try to show how smart they are (and justify their salaries, life's, etc. and so on.) Ironically, something some readers and critics of his accuse him of, and a self-criticism he struggled with himself. I think he was mocking his professors. And maybe unconsciously, or not unconsciously, going after Mom and Dad. It seems his entire life, he suffered from being "too smart for his own good." And couldn't come to grips with how his super intellect set him apart from people, even people he wanted to hold in high esteem and/or be close to - parents, teachers, coaches, girlfriends (?) and then doctors and psychologists. His disdain for The Authority, as well as his discomfort with that, is evidenced in much of his writing. (Read his story "Good Old Neon," for an example of what I'm speaking of.) He was not depressed. He was not depressed. He was not depressed. You can see this in his early writing, how he developed his unique writing style from the Fields of Philosophy and English. How he combined the formal language and style of Logic with that of English and came out and up with strange abbreviations, acronyms, invented words, repetition, and strong, potent modifiers - all jumbled up with irony, imagination, and black humor to become simply-- a fantastic story teller of fiction and non-fiction. In The Pale King, the novel he was working on when he ended his life, or "eliminated his map"; he wrote that the secret to life was being able to be at peace and comfortable with boredom - to be able to quiet the mind and focus on just that which is right in front of you. A thing he could never do. His mind was expansive-- so open, so creative.

I really can't recommend this book for anyone other than Logic/Philosophy students, writers, and Wallace fans. But I'm not sure of that. Reading this book made me angry, and depresses me. In some ways, Wallace's story can be an argument for fatalism--the decision to kill oneself based on a belief with no proof--that there are no choices--no way out. But then, I'm more of a determinist. I can't stop myself from thinking- All it would have taken was one really competent therapist, or one really smart friend -and David Foster Wallace would still be alive.

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