ABSTRACT
This chapter interprets the behaviour of some characters in the novels of Henry James. Although content can influence style, its major determinants are education and personality. Next, it would not follow, and it is anyway untrue, that literary style influences choice of content. Third, there is no such thing as a special British and American philosophical style. There are nearly as many styles as philosophers. Philosophy is rather a macho subject, and macho types perhaps feel that love and literature are just sissy. They might also hold the view, be it true or false, that much of what is actually published on literature-and-philosophy is blah. Yet there is an honourable reason for avoiding the study of literature-and-philosophy: : it looks to be philosophically unfruitful. In so far as that is a philosophical saying it does not take long to say. On the other hand, describing how a novel makes its moral points is like describing the skill of a skier.
