Fiction and Metaphysics

by Amie L. Thomasson

This challenging study places fiction squarely at the center of the discussion of metaphysics. Philosophers have traditionally treated fiction as involving a set of narrow problems in logic or the philosophy of language. By contrast Amie Thomasson argues that fiction has far-reaching implications for central problems of metaphysics. The book develops an "artifactual" theory of fiction, whereby fictional characters are abstract artifacts as ordinary as laws or symphonies or works of literature. In taking seriously the work of literary scholars and in citing a wide range of literary examples, this book will interest not only philosophers concerned with metaphysics and the philosophy of language, but also those in literary theory interested in these foundational issues.

Genres: Philosophy, Metaphysics, Nonfiction

175 pages, Hardcover

First published November 13, 1998

Reviews

[Italo Lins Lemos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ainda é a defesa mais robusta de um realismo acerca dos objetos ficcionais.

[Private Account · Rating 2 out of 5]

I give it two stars because Amie did a nice job for the philosophical paradigm that she works in. Book is clearly written. Amie is clearly smart. I like Amie, and I can't say that about very many authors. But I can't give this book more than 2 stars because non-objectivist philosophy is so ridiculous I just feel bad for them. And not that objectivism has all the answers at all, but it definitely provides a far simpler solution to her major fiction issue than her new category system.

[Heather Browning · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt like this book maybe tried to do too much in a small space and as such, left a lot of questions unanswered. The nominal aim of the book was to develop a metaphysics of fictional objects, which the author made some interesting advances into, but I was still left wondering things like, what does it mean for a fictional character to hold particular properties inside a work of fiction, as opposed to the properties they hold in the 'real' world. She also attempts to present a schema for ontology - what kinds of things there are and how we should classify them, based in dependencies. This was really interesting, but needed more than the couple of chapters at the end to really work with. I felt like it should have been presented the other way around - giving the ontology, then placing fictional objects inside it, rather than starting with fictions and revising ontology on this basis.

[Ruthie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very interesting ontological system in which Thomasson thinks that we can accept fictional characters. I think that her categorical system, while immensely complicated, better accommodates a greater variety of entities that we may wish to meaningfully discuss. I think that, like she says, it is important to be able to meaningfully discuss abstract entities such as fictional entities, since these things take such a large part in our lives.