The Nonexistent by Anthony Everett

The Nonexistent by Anthony Everett

Anthony Everett defends the commonsense view that there are no such things as fictional people, places, and things. More precisely he develops and defends a pretense theoretic account on which there are no such things as fictional objects and our talk and thought that purports to be about them takes place within the scope of a pretense. Nevertheless we may mistakenly suppose there are fictional objects because we mistake the fact that certain utterances count as true within the pretense, and convey veridical information about the real world, for the genuine truth of those utterances. In the first half of The Nonexistent an account of this form is motivated, developed in detail, and defended from objections. The second half of the book then argues against fictional realism, the view that we should accept fictional objects into our ontology. First it is argued that the standard arguments offered for fictional realism all fail. Then a series of problems are raised for fictional realism. The upshot of these is that fictional realism provides an inadequate account of a significant range of talk and thought that purports to concern fictional objects. In contrast the pretense theoretic account developed earlier provides a very straightforward and attractive account of these cases and of fictional character discourse in general. Overall, Everett argues that we gain little but lose much by accepting fictional realism.

this book is abundant with complex and subtle arguments against fictional realism * Maria EReicher, Philosophical Quarterly *
the issues it covers are interesting and the discussion erudite . . . it is an obvious must read for anyone working in fiction. It will also prove useful - and importantly accessible - to someone less involved in the literature of that area. So philosophers of language and metaphysicians, more broadly, should also be interested in reading this book as worked example of more general issues that they face. * Nikk Effingham, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *
Everetts fine book deserves great consideration * Alberto Voltolini, Dialectica *
This book makes a valuable contribution to the debate between realists and anti-realists about fictional objects. * Catharine Abell, British Journal of Aesthetics *

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.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780199674794
ISBN 10	0199674795
Title	The Nonexistent
Author	Anthony Everett
Condition	Unavailable
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Year published	2013-08-29
Number of pages	256
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable