Some Challenges for Narrative Accounts of Value

Restoring or Re-storying the Lake District: Applying Responsive Cohesion to a Current Problem Situation

“…When place narrative language moves into the arena of values or ethics there can be the danger of a form of circularity. If we know the right thing Environmental Values 27.4 to do, as derived from the narrative, how did we arrive at the morally justifiable narrative (McShane, 2012)? Whilst narrative can do important descriptive work and assist in revealing values that are held it possibly needs something more foundational to assist in sifting the good narratives from the bad or to justify whether a particular valued narrative is actually one that should be valued (Hourdequin, 2013).…”

The ethics of historic preservation

“…Sandis, ), and we can encounter practical conflicts between preserving the heritage of different communities. On the more theoretical side, Katie McShane has recently challenged whether narrative accounts of value provide any evaluative standard at all: she worries that narratives offer a compelling picture of our valuing behavior, but no resources for understanding whether (and which) narratives are in fact valuable (i.e., worth valuing) (McShane, ). For instance, David Velleman has pointed out that narratives can mislead us because of the way in which they can provide emotional closure, even at the expense of adherence to the truth (Velleman, ).…”

“…For instance, David Velleman has pointed out that narratives can mislead us because of the way in which they can provide emotional closure, even at the expense of adherence to the truth (Velleman, ). What standards can we appeal to in order to explain whether a narrative is a source of value or merely a psychological mollifier (McShane, , pp. 58–59)?…”

“…On this view, values will have to be both constituted by our narratives and that by which we judge the adequacy of our narratives. (McShane, , p. 62)…”

“…While there is certainly something appealing and intuitive about the idea that our lives are bound up in spatio‐temporal narratives that link history and place in meaningful ways, it is less clear how to employ this observation as a guide to preservation. For one, as O'Neill, Holland, and Light acknowledge, narratives are selective and contested, and thus, dominant narratives are liable to drown out those that have been historically marginalized (McShane, , p. 60; Palmer, ). This makes it difficult to see how best to operationalize the narrative significance of place as a guide to preservation, a problem that echoes Wylie's hesitations about stewardship models for archaeology mentioned above (Wylie, ).…”