Fiction and Metaphysics (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy)
Cambridge University Press, 2/18/1999
EAN 9780521640800, ISBN10: 0521640806
Hardcover, 188 pages, 21.6 x 14 x 1.4 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
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.