Project description
The invisible script: how stories drive behaviour
In our post-truth era of fake news and conspiracy theories, society lacks a clear framework to understand why humans constantly fabulate – or invent stories – to interpret their reality. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the FABULATOR project aims to bridge this gap by producing scientific articles and podcasts that explore fabulation as an essential mental activity and the primary driving force of human behaviour. By sketching a new philosophical anthropology, the project seeks to establish fabulation studies as a formal research field. Additional objectives include removing critical epistemological hurdles, helping us navigate cognitive biases and virtual realities by revealing the logic behind human belief and providing tools to distinguish credible narratives from those that are not.
Objective
“Everything is a story”. A fabula. This has become a commonplace, but its foundations remain largely unknown. Everywhere, all the time, when we tell (ourselves) stories, when we dream, think, experience the world, we are fabulating, to varying degrees and according to distinct modalities that need to be examined. Why is this? How does it happen and with what consequences? What becomes of truth in a fabulatory epistemological regime? What can we know about reality if we keep inventing it? Are all fabulations equal? And if we are to reject such relativism, how, then, can we discriminate between those worthy of our credence and those not? These issues are highly topical in our challenging age of post-truth and fake news, with countless ramifications such as conspiracy theories, cognitive biases, echo chambers and virtual reality… The FABULATOR project, based on the production of scientific articles and podcasts, will address the ins and outs of these varied phenomena by exposing their logic and coherence on the basis of what, in human nature, makes them possible, thus removing an epistemological hurdle. Its main aim is to set up an archaeology of the epistemological regime that is dominant today, by sketching out the outlines of a philosophical anthropology. The central hypothesis is that fabulation is an essential activity of the mind and, therefore, the driving force for human behaviour.
Beyond the duration of the action, its ambition is to lay the foundations for (I) a new kind of essay on man, based on this fundamental fabulatory activity, but for which a theoretical framework is lacking, and (II) for the elaboration of a new research field: fabulation studies. The research problem this project addresses is the absence of a comprehensive theoretical framework for fabulation as a core cognitive and cultural mechanism, aiming to establish its epistemological foundations and assess its impact on human belief, knowledge, and behavior.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities languages and literature literature studies literary genres essays
- social sciences sociology anthropology
- humanities history and archaeology archaeology
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
1348 LOUVAIN LA NEUVE
Belgium
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.