Literature has philosophical value if reading it gives occasion to explore the nature of human knowledge, how we know and what we can know. These questions are central to the production of art because any artist must interact with the world in order to represent it, whether lyrically in a poem or through storytelling in fiction; he must, to some extent, know the world. But it is hard to be certain about what we know or even whether we can know anything at all. Some writers explore philosophical issues pretty deeply because they are often a source of crisis that can create great drama and raise intriguing questions. If a work invites us to think about perception, making sense of our place in the world, or self-awareness, then we can say that it has philosophical value. In response to such works, we tend to look inward and wonder, "who am I?"
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