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FICTION'S ONTOLOGICAL COMMITMENTS 1
Author(s) -
MOLE CHRISTOPHER
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
the philosophical forum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.134
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1467-9191
pISSN - 0031-806X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9191.2009.00340.x
Subject(s) - metaphysics , epistemology , fiction theory , modality (human–computer interaction) , possible world , ontology , philosophy , non fiction , literary fiction , sociology , literature , computer science , linguistics , literary criticism , art , artificial intelligence
This article examines one way in which a fiction can carry ontological commitments. The ontological commitments that the article examines arise in cases where there are norms governing discourse about items in a fiction that cannot be accounted for by reference to the contents of the sentences that constitute a canonical telling of that fiction. In such cases, a fiction may depend for its contents on the real‐world properties of real‐world items, and the fiction may, in that sense, be ontologically committed. Having outlined a way of gauging the ontological commitments of a fiction, the article concludes by illustrating the way in which these considerations can be put to work in assessing the prospects of using fictionalism as a tactic for understanding the metaphysics of modality without incurring a commitment to the real existence of merely possible worlds.