Fictional Objects

by Stuart Brock (Editor), Anthony Everett (Editor)

Overview

Eleven original essays discuss a range of puzzling philosophical questions about fictional characters, and more generally about fictional objects. For example, they ask questions like the following: Do they really exist? What would fictional objects be like if they existed? Do they exist eternally? Are they created? Who by? When and how? Can they be destroyed? If so, how? Are they abstract or concrete? Are they actual? Are they complete objects? Are they possible objects? How many fictional objects are there? What are their identity conditions? What kinds of attitudes can we have towards them? This volume will be a landmark in the philosophical debate about fictional objects, and will influence higher-level debates within metaphysics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191054532
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	06/04/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	772 KB

About the Author

Stuart Brock is a Reader and Associate Professor in the Philosophy Programme at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. He has been Head of the Philosophy Programme, Deputy Head of School, and Dean of Students in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. He has published numerous articles and book chapters on fiction, fictionalism and fictional objects. He has also published a book with Edwin Mares on Realism and Anti-Realism. Stuart received his PhD from Princeton University and taught for many years in the United States. He has been at Victoria since 2002. Anthony Everett is a senior lecturer in philosophy at the University of Bristol, having obtained his PhD from Stanford University in 2000. He works in the philosophy of language, and related areas in the philosophy of mind, philosophical logic, metaphysics, and aesthetics. He is the author of The Nonexistent (OUP, 2013).

Table of Contents

Introduction, STUART BROCK AND ANTHONY EVERETT1. A Reconsidered Defense of Haecceitism Regarding Fictional Individuals, WILLIAM G. LYCAN2. Objects of Fiction and Objects of Thought, ROBERT HOWELL3. Wondering About Witches, DAVID BRAUN4. The Philosopher's Stone and Other Mythical Objects, NATHAN SALMON5. A Suitable Metaphysics for Fictional Entities: Why One Has to Run Syncretistically, ALBERTO VOLTOLINI6. Creationism and the Problem of Indiscernible Fictional Objects, FREDERICK KROON7. Brutal Identity, BEN CAPLAN AND CATHLEEN MULLER8. The Importance of Fictional Properties, SARAH SAWYER9. Fictionalism, Fictional Characters, and Fictional Inference, STUART BROCK10. Fictional Discourse and Fictionalisms, AMIE L. THOMASSON11. Ideas for Stories, ANTHONY EVERETT AND TIMOTHY SCHROEDERIndex

Editorial Reviews

" I enjoyed Fictional Objects very much. All of its chapters are rich in argument, creative in their ideas, and food for thought for anyone interested in fictionality and its relations to existence, possibility, thought, and language." - Emily Caddick Bourne, Australasian Journal of Philosophy

From the Publisher