Fiction and Metaphysics

Amie Thomasson argues that fiction has far-reaching implications for central problems of metaphysics.

Amie L. Thomasson (Author)

9780521065214, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 12 June 2008

188 pages, 9 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 1.1 cm, 0.24 kg

This challenging study places fiction squarely at the centre of the discussion of metaphysics. Philosophers have traditionally treated fiction as involving a set of narrow problems in logic or the philosophy of language. By contrast Amie Thomasson argues that fiction has far-reaching implications for central problems of metaphysics. The book develops an 'artifactual' theory of fiction, whereby fictional characters are abstract artifacts as ordinary as laws or symphonies or works of literature. By understanding fictional characters we come to understand how other cultural and social objects are established on the basis of the independent physical world and the mental states of human beings.

Introduction: from fiction into metaphysics
Part I. The Artifactual Theory of Fiction: Foreword
1. If we postulated fictional objects, what would they be?
2. The nature and varieties of existential dependence
3. Fictional characters as abstract artifacts
4. Reference to fictional characters
5. Identity conditions for fictional characters
Part II. Ontological Decisions: Foreword
6. Fiction and experience
7. Fiction and language
8. Ontology and categorization
9. The perils of false parsimony
10. An ontology for a varied world
Notes
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Philosophy: aesthetics [HPN]