Fiction and Metaphysics

Fiction and Metaphysics PDF Author: Amie L. Thomasson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521640800
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
This challenging study places fiction squarely at the centre 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. By understanding fictional characters we come to understand how other cultural and social objects are established on the basis of the independent physical world and the mental states of human beings.

Fiction and Metaphysics

Fiction and Metaphysics PDF Author: Amie L. Thomasson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521640800
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 204

Get Book Here

Book Description
This challenging study places fiction squarely at the centre 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. By understanding fictional characters we come to understand how other cultural and social objects are established on the basis of the independent physical world and the mental states of human beings.

Fictional Objects

Fictional Objects PDF Author: Stuart Brock
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198735596
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
Discusses a range of philosophical questions about fictional characters and fictional objects, with implications for metaphysics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language.

Fiction and Representation

Fiction and Representation PDF Author: Zoltán Vecsey
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110648229
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
One of the basic insights of the book is that there is a notion of non-relational linguistic representation which can fruitfully be employed in a systematic approach to literary fiction. This notion allows us to develop an improved understanding of the ontological nature of fictional entities. A related insight is that the customary distinction between extra-fictional and intra-fictional contexts has only a secondary theoretical importance. This distinction plays a central role in nearly all contemporary theories of literary fiction. There is a tendency among researchers to take it as obvious that the contrast between these two types of contexts is crucial for understanding the boundary that divides fiction from non-fiction. Seen from the perspective of non-relational representation, the key question is rather how representational networks come into being and how consumers of literary texts can, and do, engage with these networks. As a whole, the book provides, for the first time, a comprehensive artefactualist account of the nature of fictional entities.

Fictional Discourse

Fictional Discourse PDF Author: Stefano Predelli
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192595962
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Fictional Discourse: A Radical Fictionalist Semantics combines the insight of linguistic and philosophical semantics with the study of fictional language. Its central idea is familiar to anyone exposed to the ways of narrative fiction, namely the notion of a fictional teller. Starting with premises having to do with fictional names such as 'Holmes' or 'Emma', Stefano Predelli develops Radical Fictionalism, a theory that is subsequently applied to central themes in the analysis of fiction. Among other things, he discusses the distinction between storyworlds and narrative peripheries, the relationships between homodiegetic and heterodiegetic narrative, narrative time, unreliability, and closure. The final chapters extend Radical Fictionalism to critical discourse, as Predelli introduces the ideas of critical and biased retelling, and pauses on the relationships between Radical Fictionalism and talk about literary characters.

Detecting Detection

Detecting Detection PDF Author: Peter Baker
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1441128123
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
We indulge our fascination with detection in many ways, only some of which occur in the detective story. In fact, modern fiction regularly uses elements of a detective narrative to tell another story altogether, to engage characters, narrators, and readers with questions of identity, with examinations of moral and ethical reasoning, with critiques of social and political injustices, and with the metaphysics of meaning itself. Detective plots cross cultural and national boundaries and occur in different ways and different genres. Taken together, they suggest important contemporary understandings of who and what we are, how and what we aspire to become. Detecting Detection gathers writing from the UK, North and South America, Europe, and Asia to draw together instances of the detective plot in contemporary fiction. It is unique not only in addressing the theme-a recurring one in modern literature-but in tracking the interest in detectives and detection across international borders.

Metaphysics: The Basics

Metaphysics: The Basics PDF Author: Michael Rea
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317756045
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
Metaphysics: The Basics is a concise and engaging introduction to the philosophical study of the world and universe in which we live. Concerned with questions about reality, existence, time, identity and change, metaphysics has long fascinated people but to the uninitiated some of the issues and problems can appear very complex. In this lively and lucid book, Michael Rea examines and explains key questions in the study of metaphysics such as: • Can two things be in the same place at the same time? • Do creatures of fiction exist? • Are human beings free? • Is time travel possible? • Is there just one world or many worlds? With a glossary of key terms and suggestions for further reading, the book considers key philosophical arguments around Metaphysics, making this an ideal starting point for anyone seeking a full introduction to the debates both within and about metaphysics.

God, Existence, and Fictional Objects

God, Existence, and Fictional Objects PDF Author: John-Mark L. Miravalle
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 135006162X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
God and fictional objects are central topics within philosophy, but rarely do the respective discussions overlap. Until now the two fields have remained independent. Applying the debate about fictional objects to issues of theology for the first time, John-Mark L. Miravalle bridges these two fields and presents a new approach to notions of God, creatures, and existence. Miravalle explains why meinongianism, which holds that certain things can serve as intentional objects with properties, even though they do not exist, can facilitate talk of nonexistence better than other metaphysical viewpoints, such as platonism, modal realism and pretense-theory. He identifies points of connection between theology and nonexistents and uses meinongianism to buttress the cosmological and ontological arguments for God's existence. As a result he is able to explore fresh solutions to problems of classical theism, from the necessary existence of God and creation ex nihilo to free will and the problem of evil. By revealing how a particular account of fictional objects is especially harmonious with and supportive of the major claims of traditional theism, Miravalle makes a major contribution to theistic metaphysics.

Existence, Fiction, Assumption

Existence, Fiction, Assumption PDF Author: Mauro Antonelli
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110451514
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
Band 6 der Meinong-Studien versammelt Beiträge vor allem zu den Themen Intentionalität, Existenz und Fiktion. Dabei wird der Hintergrund von Meinongs Position bis herauf zur Debatte mit Russell beleuchtet; mehr systematisch ausgerichtet sind die Untersuchungen zu Kripkes Gegenposition sowie zur Bedeutung von Fiktionen im Rahmen wissenschaftlicher Kontexte. Abgerundet wird der Band durch biographische Darstellungen von Christian v. Ehrenfels, Begründer der Gestalt-Theorie und enger Freund Meinongs, und Ernst Mally, Schüler Meinongs und Nachfolger auf dessen Lehrstuhl.

Existence

Existence PDF Author: Peter van Inwagen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107047129
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
This is a collection of Peter van Inwagen's recent essays on ontology and meta-ontology.

Empty Representations

Empty Representations PDF Author: Manuel García-Carpintero
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199647054
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
The contents of linguistic and mental representations may seem to be individuated by what they are about. But a problem arises with regard to representation of the non-existent -- words and thoughts that are about things that don't exist. Fourteen new essays get to grips with this much-debated problem.