MUSIL'S METAPHILOSOPHICAL VIEW: BETWEEN PHILOSOPHICAL NATURALISM AND PHILOSOPHY AS LITERATURE

This paper is about Musil's view of the relation between science, literature, and philosophy. It situates Musil's position in metaphilosophical space in between the traditional conception of philosophy, philosophical naturalism and the view that philosophy is a kind of literary genre. Musil defends a unique combination of philosophical naturalism and philosophy as literature which is superior to more standard versions of these views. He uses a sophisticated joint literary and scientific strategy of argument to support this view which is carefully reconstructed.