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- Title
Fictional Road Not Taken: A Weak Anti-realist Theory of Fiction.
- Authors
Alward, Peter
- Abstract
Nathan Salmon has defended what might be called "weak modal anti-realism"—the view that possible-object names can refer to possible objects that neither exist nor are otherwise real. But rather than adopting a similar view in the fictional case, he instead defends fictional creationism—the view that fictional characters are existent but abstract entities created by authors of fiction. In this paper, I first argue that if weak modal antirealism is defensible then weak fictional antirealism is defensible as well. Second, I argue that there is no reason to prefer fictional creationism over weak fictional antirealism but there is very good reason to prefer the latter over the former. And third, I defend weak fictional antirealism against the charge that it cannot provide a satisfactory account of statements that prima facie involve reference to or quantification over fictional characters.
- Subjects
ANTI-realism; CREATIONISM; SALMON, Nathan; FICTION; FICTIONAL characters; REALISM
- Publication
Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism, 2022, Vol 80, Issue 3, p333
- ISSN
0021-8529
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/jaac/kpac016