Prof. Bruce Duncan MacQueen Chair, Program Committee	Prof. Maria Pachalska Chair, Organizing Committee

It is with a great sense of anticipation, but not without some trepidation as well, that we invite all those interested to attend a symposium entitled “Truth, Fiction, Reality: An Interdisciplinary Approach,” to be held in Katowice, Poland, on 24-26 October 2008.

The questions to be explored during this Symposium are such obvious ones that most of us, most of the time, talk around them rather than about them. We tend to begin with one of two basic assumptions:

• an empirical one (what is true and real is that which can be verified by the concrete sensory perception of at least two persons), or
• a relativistic one (truth is always a matter of conviction, value, even personal taste).

The truth of physics, the truth of psychology, the truth of philosophy, the truth of philology – all these and many others seem to be quite different truths, related to different realities, so that it may seem hopelessly naïve to try to perceive, within them or behind them or above them, some “Platonic” truth that informs them all. Post-modern thinking, very broadly understood, has made any such effort seem untenable, perhaps charming but distinctly quaint. Or, conversely, the rigors of hard science or the practicality of daily living seem to have made the question moot: truth is what conforms to the established rules that exist precisely in order to tell us what is true. And that in turn decides what is real. Wondering about truth and reality would seem as pointless as wondering why the sky is blue.

Oddly enough, we are rather less confused about non-truth. Statements that are not consistent with truth and reality are erroneous, or mendacious, or fictitious; and most of us, most of the time, know exactly what a mistake is and what a lie is (though this certainly will not always bear close scrutiny). Moreover, we are in general, though largely unspoken and uncritical agreement, that mistakes and lies are statements of no value, to be sedulously avoided in any discourse, especially learned or scientific. We may be a little less clear about what a fiction is, how it is different from a lie (if indeed it is), or whether it has some potential value, even if it is not the truth. But the theory of fiction in literary studies seldom comes at this problem directly.

We are left, then, with an uneasy conviction that there should be more to truth and reality, and thus to fiction, than the conundrums we learned as undergraduates. If we cannot get beyond Pontius Pilate’s strategy of asking the main question and then “not staying for answer,” then the value of the entire academic undertaking, both research and teaching, seems at best dubious, at worst – completely spurious.

It would be hubristic to assume that in a few days of deliberation we can resolve these difficult questions. The effort here is rather to ask some rather embarrassing, possibly very naïve questions, and listen to what people from various academic backgrounds have to say in response. This is not meant to be a gathering of experts on truth, on fiction, or on reality, but rather a gathering of thinkers who have something interesting to say and are interested in hearing what others may have to say. The papers will be non-specialized and not over-long, more provocative than definitive, with time for question and discussion – which, we sincerely hope, will not end when the Symposium is over. Nor will the discussion be constrained to the usual lines that divide academic departments. Thus “interdisciplinary” is not just a fashionable shibboleth, but a fair characterization of what we are trying to do.

We look forward to greeting our guests in Katowice, and hope each of you will return home feeling that you have gotten even more than you gave.

Prof. Bruce Duncan MacQueen Chair, Program Committee	Prof. Maria Pachalska Chair, Organizing Committee