Fiction and Metaphysics

Thomasson, Amie L.

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511527463

Cited by 203 publications

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“…1 The other three main (clusters of) approaches to fictional entities are (1) Meinongianism (Routley 1980;Parsons 1980;Jacquette 1996), (2) Fictionalism (Currie 1990;Walton 1990), and (3) Realism (Wolterstorff 1980;Salmon 1998;Thomasson 1999Thomasson , 2001van Inwagen 1977van Inwagen , 2003. Meinongianism, Fictionalism, and Realism may be summarized in a single sentence by considering what each theory claims of the name ''Sherlock Holmes''.…”

Section: The Methodology Of Fiction: Minimal Revision and The Acceptamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modal Meinongianism and fiction: the best of three worlds

Berto

2009

Philos Stud

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We outline a neo-Meinongian framework labeled as Modal Meinongian Metaphysics (MMM) to account for the ontology and semantics of fictional discourse. Several competing accounts of fictional objects are originated by the fact that our talking of them mirrors incoherent intuitions: mainstream theories of fiction privilege some such intuitions, but are forced to account for others via complicated paraphrases of the relevant sentences. An ideal theory should resort to as few paraphrases as possible. In Sect. 1, we make this explicit via two methodological principles, called the Minimal Revision and the Acceptability Constraint. In Sect. 2, we introduce the standard distinction between internal and external fictional discourse. In Sects. 3-5, we discuss the approaches of (traditional) Meinongianism, Fictionalism, and Realism-and their main troubles. In Sect. 6 we propose our MMM approach. This is based upon (1) a modal semantics including impossible worlds (Subsect. 6.1); (2) a qualified Comprehension Principle for objects (Subsect. 6.2); (3) a notion of existence-entailment for properties (Subsect. 6.3). In Sect. 7 we present a formal semantics for MMM based upon a representation operator. And in Sect. 8 we have a look at how MMM solves the problems of the three aforementioned theories.

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Section: The Methodology Of Fiction: Minimal Revision and The Acceptamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to Realism, though, there is such a(n abstract) thing as Holmes. So the de re reading is an option for them, and is actually embraced in Thomasson 1999.…”

Section: Fictionalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modal Meinongianism and fiction: the best of three worlds

Berto

2009

Philos Stud

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“…Amie Thomasson (1999) and other realist-minded philosophers attempt to resolve this tension by regarding characters as created abstract objects. Antirealists like Mark Sainsbury (2010) reject the real existence of fictional entites and claim that characters have only presupposition-relative existence conditions.…”

Section: Literary-theoretical Accounts Of Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction: Linguistic and literary aspects of perspectivity

Vecsey

2015

Semiotica

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Abstract:The relationship between meaning and perspectivity has been recognized for a long time both in linguistics and in literary theory. It is well-known that the perspectival character of our sensory experiences constitutes an important factor in the determination of meaning. But the nature of the relationship between meaning and perspective is heavily contested. Perspectival phenomena are sometimes treated as isolated or local issues. In some cases, however, they are conceived of as playing a fundamental role in scientific theorizing. This introductory paper gives a short overview of the current trends and results from this ongoing research.

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“…Some have taken fictional entities to be abstract, albeit not necessarily on the model of numbers or other familiar abstracta (Thomasson, 1999). This view has distinct advantages, but it requires that we understand the model-world relationship as a type of structural mapping, since there can be no ordinary similarity between abstract models and concrete phenomena (Thomson-Jones, 2010).…”

Section: Semantics and Ontology Having Sketched The Two Packages Anmentioning

confidence: 99%

Models, Fictions, and Realism: Two Packages

Levy¹

2012

Philos. of Sci.

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Some philosophers of science -the present author included -appeal to fiction as an interpretation of the practice of modeling. This raises the specter of an incompatibility with realism, since fictionmaking is essentially non-truth-regulated. I argue that the prima facie conflict can be resolved in two ways, each involving a distinct notion of fiction and a corresponding formulation of realism. The main goal of the paper is to describe these two packages. Toward the end I comment on how to choose among them. IntroductionSometimes philosophers of science appeal to fiction by way of dismissal: misguided theoretical efforts -the positing of ether, epicycles, gemmules -are seen as "merely fictional", mistakes which serve, at best, as stepping stones on the way to better science. But recent discussion has increasingly included an interpretive appeal to fiction. Here the idea is that certain aspects of theoretical science, especially modeling, can be illuminated by drawing an analogy to works of art such as novels and feature films. My interest here is in this interpretive project -specifically in its compatibility with some form of scientific realism. Viewing models as fictional implies that they are often untrue. More importantly, it means that they are, at least in the first instance, not regulated by truth. This implies that in order to hold on to realism we need to locate a locus of truth in modeling that is different than the models themselves, yet permits a stance that is appropriately thought of as realism about the fruits of 1 For oral and written comments I am indebted to Mauricio Suarez and Martin modeling. I will argue that this can be had, if both realism and "fictionalism" 2 are given the right formulation. Indeed, I will argue that there are two possible fictionalism-plus-realism packages. I'll mainly describe these packages, but toward the end I discuss reasons for choosing among them. Setting up the ProblemLet me start by motivating the interpretive appeal to fictions, via an example drawn from recent theoretical work on the onset of cancer. Cancer often arises in small compartments within a tissue -e.g. so-called "crypts" in the colon. An important theoretical question is whether the architecture of such compartments affects the likelihood of cancer. The so-called "linear process model" represents one attempt to address this question (see Figure 1). In this model a compartment is described as a production line of sorts, in which cells "pop in" at one end and leave (i.e. die) at the other end. Martin Nowak and colleagues have shown that this kind of architecture substantially reduces the likelihood of cancer (Nowak et. al, 2003). These observations suggest that models -at least some models, those that contain idealization, perhaps -bear important similarities to fictions. Indeed several recent authors have argued that modeling is a species of fiction-making (Godfey-Smith, 2006Frigg, 2010;Toon, 2010). I too find this suggestion attractive (although in a somewhat qualified form -see Levy, forth...

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Fiction and Metaphysics

Cited by 203 publications

References 0 publications

Modal Meinongianism and fiction: the best of three worlds

Modal Meinongianism and fiction: the best of three worlds

Introduction: Linguistic and literary aspects of perspectivity

Models, Fictions, and Realism: Two Packages

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