Fictional Objects

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.

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).

- Introduction - 1: WILLIAM G. LYCAN: A Reconsidered Defense of Haecceitism Regarding Fictional Individuals - 2: ROBERT HOWELL: Objects of Fiction and Objects of Thought - 3: DAVID BRAUN: Wondering About Witches - 4: NATHAN SALMON: The Philosopher's Stone and Other Mythical Objects - 5: ALBERTO VOLTOLINI: A Suitable Metaphysics for Fictional Entities: Why One Has to Run Syncretistically - 6: FREDERICK KROON: Creationism and the Problem of Indiscernible Fictional Objects - 7: BEN CAPLAN AND CATHLEEN MULLER: Brutal Identity - 8: SARAH SAWYER: The Importance of Fictional Properties - 9: STUART BROCK: Fictionalism, Fictional Characters, and Fictional Inference - 10: AMIE L. THOMASSON: Fictional Discourse and Fictionalisms - 11: ANTHONY EVERETT AND TIMOTHY SCHROEDER: Ideas for Stories - Index