Goldstein, whose work has been widely acclaimed for transcending boundaries between philosophy and literature, is a Montgomery Fellow and will be in residence until the end of the fall term.
Goldstein said the rift between philosophy and literature dates back 2,400 years to Plato, who dismissed poetry as a legitimate form of philosophical debate in "The Republic," she said.
"Philosophy and literature have been a battleground for a long time," she said.
Even as a successful philosophical novelist, Goldstein said she struggles with the legitimacy of literature as a forum for philosophical ideas. She was quoted in a 2011 New York Times essay "The Philosophical Novel" saying she doubted that the gap between philosophy and literature could be breached.
It is impossible to keep moral and philosophical ideas from "seeping" into literature, Goldstein said.
"The philosophical and literary self are inextricably intertwined," she said. "We need literature for its perspective." She said that the accessibility and emotion of characters make novels effective at communicating philosophical ideas, and praised the author's role in influencing readers to sympathize with characters. "Philosophy, like science, is committed to a kind of epistemic democracy: the truth that is accessible to some is accessible to all," she said. "Why pretend that one's philosophical self isn't involved in the murk of art?"
Goldstein noted metaphysical concepts, including reality, nature of the self and human agency, that are commonly discussed in philosophy. "But these things are as much to be felt as to be thought," she said.
Goldstein concluded by asking, "What is the thing that would just kill you to give up?" She then played an audio recording in which respondents answered "reality," "the concept of God," "mathematics" and "reason." "We are all grappling with these issues very profoundly," Goldstein said. "And it's a good thing for a philosopher, who may know how to think about these issues better than other people, to address these issues to other people. Philosophy is too good to be kept to philosophers."
Approximately 60 students, faculty and community members attended the lecture. In addition to her talk, Goldstein will visit classes, engage with students, faculty and community members and participate in an interactive workshop between physicists and philosophers during her stay at Dartmouth.
Kris Brown '14 was among the students who attended.
"I happened upon this serendipitously," he said. "I had the afternoon free and the subject looked interesting."
Jimmy Ragan '16 attended the lecture and planned to attend a dinner with Goldstein later last night.
"I was intrigued by the content of the subject matter," he said.
Goldstein graduated as valedictorian of her undergraduate class at Barnard College, and then went on to earn a PhD in philosophy from Princeton University.
She then returned to Barnard as a philosophy professor, but "wandered" from analytical philosophy to literary writing when she penned her first novel during a summer break, she said.
"I wrote my first novel because it was there," she said. "It was bursting out of my head." Goldstein has since discussed philosophical issues in six novels, including one set to be released in March 2014, and authored a collection of short stories and two biographies. In 1996 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, for incorporating questions of morality and existence into fiction.
The Montgomery Fellows Program was established in 1977 with the goal of enriching intellectual life at the College, program director Christianne Hardy Wohlforth said. The program encourages fellows to connect with students both in and out of the classroom.
"The success of the program is measured by the quality of these informal interactions that take place between the fellow and the Dartmouth students, faculty and community members," she said.
