Philosophy and Its Fictions

Philosophy and Its Fictions is an unsettling book built on a thesis as simple as it is devastating: philosophy has not only fought against myths-it has also invented myths about itself. Through six sharp, lucid essays, Héctor Martínez Sanz dismantles some of the foundational narratives of Western thought: Plato's Cave, the almost sacred figure of Socrates, the myth of the absent-minded philosopher who falls into a well, the supposed natural alliance between philosophy and democracy, and the famous "transition from myth to logos." What we tend to repeat as untouchable truths appears here for what it also is: literature, propaganda, beautifully crafted fictions.With clear, incisive prose, the book invites us to read philosophy without solemnity or reverence, as an exercise that moves between suspicion and lucidity. The volume opens with an introduction by César Eduardo Gordillo, who situates the project within contemporary debates on the limits of philosophical discourse. A book for readers who distrust stories that sound a little too perfect and who want to think about philosophy from scratch, once again.