Moral Knowledge from Fiction: A Challenge to Stokke’s Defeater Thesis

This paper argues that fiction can reliably impart moral knowledge, despite its fictional status. After establishing that moral knowledge fits the framework of justified true belief, I defend the view that literature can communicate moral truths and knowledge that is the same kind as knowledge gained from direct testimony. In response to Andreas Stokke’s claim that fiction serves as a defeater for knowledge, I argue that moral truths, unlike factual claims, survive the default defeater. Through a specific example from To Kill a Mockingbird, I show that literature can offer justified moral testimony, affirming its role as a legitimate source of moral knowledge.