Journal
SYNTHESE
Volume 198, Issue 8, Pages 7829-7859Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s11229-020-02550-1
Keywords
Fictional names; Fictional characters; Individual concepts; Dynamic semantics; Realism; Roles
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Funding
- Uppsala University
- Riksbankens Jubileumsfond
- Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study
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This paper defends a realist view that fictional characters exist and argues that fictional names denote individual concepts, providing explanations for various uses of fictional names.
This paper defends a version of the realist view that fictional characters exist. It argues for an instance of abstract realist views, according to which fictional characters are roles, constituted by sets of properties. It is argued that fictional names denote individual concepts, functions from worlds to individuals. It is shown that a dynamic framework for understanding the evolution of discourse information can be used to understand how roles are created and develop along with story content. Taking fictional names to denote individual concepts provides accounts of a number of uses of fictional names. These include non-fictional uses, fictional uses, metafictional uses, interfictional uses, counterfictional uses, and negative existentials. It is argued that this account is not open to objections that have been raised in the literature.
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