Traditionally, arguments in favour of fictional objects are given in semantical terms. One indeed generally argues that there is a portion of language, notably sentence involving (directly or indirectly) fiction, whose semantical account cannot dispense with fictional objects. For at least some singular terms in that portion of language denote precisely these entities. Yet any such argument risks to be threatened by the possibility of finding more and more radical anti-realist paraphrases of that portion. So, in what follows I will try to give a language-independent argument in favour of such entities, that is, an argument providing genuinely ontological reasons in favour of ficta. According to this argument, ficta are indispensable insofar as they are involved in the identity conditions of semantically-based entities we ordinarily accept, i.e. fictional works.
How Fictional Works Are Related to Fictional Entities
VOLTOLINI, Alberto
2003-01-01
Abstract
Traditionally, arguments in favour of fictional objects are given in semantical terms. One indeed generally argues that there is a portion of language, notably sentence involving (directly or indirectly) fiction, whose semantical account cannot dispense with fictional objects. For at least some singular terms in that portion of language denote precisely these entities. Yet any such argument risks to be threatened by the possibility of finding more and more radical anti-realist paraphrases of that portion. So, in what follows I will try to give a language-independent argument in favour of such entities, that is, an argument providing genuinely ontological reasons in favour of ficta. According to this argument, ficta are indispensable insofar as they are involved in the identity conditions of semantically-based entities we ordinarily accept, i.e. fictional works.
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
