Folktales like philosophy startle us into rethinking our values | Aeon Essays

An illustration from Russian Wonder Tales (1912) by Poet Wheeler; illustrated by Ivan Bilibin. Photo by Getty by Abigail Tulenko + BIO An illustration from Russian Wonder Tales (1912) by Poet Wheeler; illustrated by Ivan Bilibin. Photo by Getty is a PhD student in philosophy at Harvard University, and a research assistant for the Anansi Story Project at Harvard’s Culture, Cognition, and Coevolution Lab. When not reading folktales, she enjoys photography, cyanotype printmaking, and writing. Edited bySam Dresser The Hungarian folktale Pretty Maid Ibronka terrified and tantalised me as a child. In the story, the young Ibronka must tie herself to the devil with string in order to discover important truths. These days, as a PhD student in philosophy, I sometimes worry I’ve done the same. I still believe in philosophy’s capacity to seek truth, but I’m conscious that I’ve tethered myself to an academic heritage plagued by formidable demons. The demons of academic philosophy come in familiar gu

An illustration from Russian Wonder Tales (1912) by Poet Wheeler; illustrated by Ivan Bilibin. Photo by Getty by Abigail Tulenko + BIO An illustration from Russian Wonder Tales (1912) by Poet Wheeler; illustrated by Ivan Bilibin. Photo by Getty is a PhD student in philosophy at Harvard University, and a research assistant for the Anansi Story Project at Harvard’s Culture, Cognition, and Coevolution Lab. When not reading folktales, she enjoys photography, cyanotype printmaking, and writing. Edited bySam Dresser The Hungarian folktale Pretty Maid Ibronka terrified and tantalised me as a child. In