Fiction

Philosophy ◽  
2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Lamarque
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Literary Fiction ◽  
Fictional Characters ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Ontological Commitments ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Abstract Entities ◽  
General Semantics ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Fictional Names

Aspects of fiction or fictionality have long intrigued and puzzled philosophers across a surprisingly wide range of the subject, including metaphysics, epistemology, logic, philosophy of language, and aesthetics. What is fiction exactly, and how is it distinguished from nonfiction? One prominent set of problems relates to fictional names (such as “Sherlock Holmes,” “the Time Machine,” “Casterbridge”), concerning how they might fit into a general semantics for natural languages. Should they be eliminated by paraphrase or should they be acknowledged as proper names, albeit referring to nonreal items? Related problems arise for ontology. Should we admit fictional entities into our ontology, affording them some kind of being (as abstract entities, perhaps, or as possible objects)? Or again, should we find ways to eliminate them? Another difficulty stems from the fact that well-developed fictional characters in realist novels can often seem more real than actual people. Not only are they spoken and thought about but they can also occupy a significant role in ordinary people’s lives, including their emotional lives. How can this be explained? How can people respond with such powerful feelings to beings they know are merely made up? Also, how is it that readers sometimes have difficulty imagining the content of stories? Philosophers writing in aesthetics about literature as an art form have explored the modes of representing fictional characters, the values storytelling might have, and the potential for works of literary fiction to convey truths about the real world. Finally, appeals to fiction are sometimes made to explain whole areas of discourse, such as mathematics or morals, where there is a reluctance to admit familiar kinds of propositions as literal truths because of their ontological commitments. Thus, “fictionalism” has been promoted: the idea that strictly speaking it is better to view the discourse as a species of fiction, even while acting as if the discourse contained straightforward truths.

The Language of Fiction

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Fictional Characters ◽  
New Research ◽  
Fictional Names ◽  
Philosophy Of Fiction ◽  
And Linguistics ◽  
Literary Techniques ◽  
Fictional Story ◽  
Fictional Truth

The Language of Fiction brings together new research on fiction from philosophy and linguistics. Fiction is a topic that has long been studied in philosophy. Yet recently there has been a surge of work on fictional discourse in the intersection between linguistics and philosophy of language. There has been a growing interest in examining long-standing issues concerning fiction from a perspective informed both by philosophy and linguistic theory. The Language of Fiction contains fourteen essays by leading scholars in both fields, as well as a substantial Introduction by the editors. The collection is organized in three parts, each with their own introduction. Part I, “Truth, reference, and imagination”, offers new, interdisciplinary perspectives on some of the central themes from the philosophy of fiction: What is fictional truth? How do fictional names refer? What kind of speech act is involved in telling a fictional story? What is the relation between fiction and imagination? Part II, “Storytelling”, deals with themes originating from the study of narrative: How do we infer a coherent story from a sequence of event descriptions? And how do we interpret the words of impersonal or unreliable narrators? Part III, “Perspective shift”, zooms in on an alleged key characteristic of fictional narratives, viz. the way we get access to the fictional characters’ inner lives, through a variety of literary techniques for representing what they say, think, or see.

The Structure of Truth

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Logical Form ◽  
Historical Document ◽  
Truth Theory ◽  
Ontological Commitments ◽  
Theory Of Meaning ◽  
First Time

Donald Davidson’s 1970 Locke Lectures appear in print for the first time in this volume, accompanied by an introduction highlighting their significance as a snapshot of his evolving views in the philosophy of language and describing their relationship to the work he published during his lifetime. The lectures comprise an invaluable historical document that illuminates how Davidson was thinking about the theory of meaning, the role of a truth theory therein, the ontological commitments of a truth theory, the notion of logical form, and so on, at a pivotal moment in the development of his thought. Unlike Davidson’s previously published work, they are written so as to be presented to an audience as a fully organized and coherent exposition of his program in the philosophy of language. Had these lectures been widely available in the years following 1970, the reception of Davidson’s work, especially in the philosophy of language, might have been very different. Given the systematic nature of the presentation of Davidson’s semantic program in these lectures, it is hoped that they will be of use to those encountering his thought for the first time.

The Fragmented Mind

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Implicit Attitudes ◽  
David Lewis ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Belief State ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship

Mental fragmentation is the thesis that the mind is fragmented, or compartmentalized. Roughly, this means that an agent’s overall belief state is divided into several sub-states—fragments. These fragments need not make for a consistent and deductively closed belief system. The thesis of mental fragmentation became popular through the work of philosophers like Christopher Cherniak, David Lewis, and Robert Stalnaker in the 1980s. Recently, it has attracted great attention again. This volume is the first collection of essays devoted to the topic of mental fragmentation. It features important new contributions by leading experts in the philosophy of mind, epistemology, and philosophy of language. Opening with an accessible Introduction providing a systematic overview of the current debate, the fourteen essays cover a wide range of issues: foundational issues and motivations for fragmentation, the rationality or irrationality of fragmentation, fragmentation’s role in language, the relationship between fragmentation and mental files, and the implications of fragmentation for the analysis of implicit attitudes.

Rethinking Role Realism

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Glavaničová
Keyword(s):  
Possible Worlds ◽  
General Idea ◽  
Fictional Characters ◽  
Realist Theory ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Individual Concepts ◽  
Gregory Currie ◽  
Fictional Names

Abstract Role realism is a promising realist theory of fictional names. Different versions of this theory have been suggested by Gregory Currie, Peter Lamarque, Stein Haugom Olsen, and Nicholas Wolterstorff. The general idea behind the approach is that fictional characters are to be analysed in terms of roles, which in turn can be understood as sets of properties (or alternatively as kinds or functions from possible worlds to individuals). I will discuss several advantages and disadvantages of this approach. I will then propose a novel hyperintensional version of role realism (which I will call impossibilism), according to which fictional names are analysed in terms of individual concepts that cannot be matched by a reference (a full-blooded individual). I will argue that this account avoids the main disadvantages of standard role realism.

scholarly journals Ceramics as the conveyance of art

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 133-139
Author(s):  
Olcay Boratav
Keyword(s):  
Time Perspective ◽  
Background Knowledge ◽  
Original Structure ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Different Shapes ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Greek Pottery ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractThe concept of art has varied according to space and time perspective in each and every period and it has emerged in different forms in every culture. Artists or designers produce a wide range of forms with different materials representing the period and culture while creating their ceramics. Ceramics symbolizes a thousand-year-old endeavor as well as being considered as one of the arts. It has shed light on the history in different shapes and cultures in addition to undertaking the task of conveyance of art with original structure and formal style in the works of art. Ceramics makes identity differences thanks to background knowledge, form and decorative techniques and originality. Art is not for society’s sake; it aims to relieve the tension, to satisfy pleasure, to enable people to see and hear, to use and to evaluate. Different cultures have generated new styles in their ceramics by integrating creativity into their own traditions and techniques as well as interacting with Mayan vases and pots, Greek pottery, Anatolian ceramics and tiles. Some of these impacts have been so profound in ceramics that they have been passed on from generation to generation.This paper seeks to address to the following questions: How was ceramics used in different cultures and periods with composition features such as form, decoration, motif and figure; and how has it undertaken the task of conveyance of art by investigating what features they have. Keywords: ceramics, art, conveyance of art, form, figure.

Language, ancient philosophy of

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Shields
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
Singular Terms ◽  
General Terms ◽  
Philosophical Argumentation ◽  
Semantic Values ◽  
Independent Inquiry

The earliest interest in language during the ancient Greek period was largely instrumental: presumed facts about language and its features were pressed into service for the purpose of philosophical argumentation. Perhaps inevitably, this activity gave way to the analysis of language for its own sake. Claims, for example, about the relation between the semantic values of general terms and the existence of universals invited independent inquiry into the nature of the meanings of those general terms themselves. Language thus became an object of philosophical inquiry in its own right. Accordingly, philosophers at least from the time of Plato conducted inquiries proper to philosophy of language. They investigated: - how words acquire their semantic values; - how proper names and other singular terms refer; - how words combine to form larger semantic units; - the compositional principles necessary for language understanding; - how sentences, statements, or propositions come to be truth-evaluable; and, among later figures of the classical period, - (6) how propositions, as abstract, mind- and language-independent entities, are to be (a) characterized in terms of their constituents, (b) related to minds and the natural languages used to express them, and (c) related to the language-independent world.

scholarly journals What Evokes Being Moved?

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Cullhed
Keyword(s):  
Core Values ◽  
Abstract Entities ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Status ◽  
Positive Core ◽  
Affective Bond ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Being Moved

Recent attempts to define being moved have difficulties agreeing on its eliciting conditions. The status quaestionis is often summarized as a question of whether the emotion is evoked by exemplifications of a wide range of positive core values or a more restricted set of values associated with attachment. This conclusion is premature. Study participants associate being moved with interactions with their loved ones not merely for what they exemplify but also for their affective bond to them. Being moved is elicited when we apprehend the value of entities to which we are connected through basic as well as extended forms of affiliative attachment. These comprise people, certain objects, and even abstract entities, including the unshakable life-guiding ideas we call “core values.”

Concepts, History and the Game of Giving and Asking for Reasons: A Defense of Conceptual History

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 426-452
Author(s):  
D. Timothy Goering
Keyword(s):  
Basic Concept ◽  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Wilfrid Sellars ◽  
Conceptual History ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Abstract Entities ◽  
Basic Concepts ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Semantic Transformation ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

Abstract This article offers a defense of the theoretical foundations of Conceptual History (Begriffsgeschichte). While Conceptual History has successfully established itself as an historical discipline, details in the philosophy of language that underpin Conceptual History continue to be opaque. Specifically the definition of what constitutes a “basic concept” (Grundbegriff) remains problematic. Reinhart Koselleck famously claimed that basic concepts are “more than words,” but he never spelled out how these abstract entities relate to words or can be subject to semantic transformation. I argue that to clarify the definition of what constitutes a basic concept we should turn to the functionalist and inferentialist philosophy of Wilfrid Sellars. By viewing historical sources as partaking in what Sellars calls the ‘game of giving and asking for reasons,’ Conceptual History can accurately trace the semantic changes of basic concepts and thus offer an important tool to the historical discipline.

scholarly journals The Oxford Handbook of Reasons and Normativity

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Recent Philosophy ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Do So

The Oxford Handbook of Reasons and Normativity contains forty-four commissioned chapters on a wide range of topics. It will appeal especially to readers with an interest in ethics or epistemology, but also to those with an interest in philosophy of mind or philosophy of language. Both students and academics will benefit from the fact that the Handbook combines helpful overviews with innovative contributions to current debates. A diverse selection of substantive positions are defended by leading proponents of the views in question. Few concepts have received as much attention in recent philosophy as the concept of a reason. This is the first edited collection to provide broad coverage of the study of reasons and normativity across multiple philosophical subfields. In addition to focusing on reasons as part of the study of ethics and as part of the study of epistemology (as well as focusing on reasons as part of the study of the philosophy of language and as part of the study of the philosophy of mind), the Handbook covers recent developments concerning the nature of normativity in general. A number of the contributions to the Handbook explicitly address such “metanormative” issues, bridging subfields as they do so.

scholarly journals Art in Science Competition invites artworks to the annual exhibition on ISMB 2018 in Chicago

F1000Research ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 337
Author(s):  
Lonnie Welch ◽  
Bruno Gaeta ◽  
Diane E. Kovats ◽  
Milana Frenkel Morgenstern
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Trees ◽  
Visual Aids ◽  
Deep Insight ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Microscope Images ◽  
Scatter Plots ◽  
Flow Diagrams ◽  
Structural Formulae ◽  
Protein Models

The International Society of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (ISCB) brings together scientists from a wide range of disciplines, including biology, medicine, computer science, mathematics and statistics. Practitioners in these fields are constantly dealing with information in visual form: from microscope images and photographs of gels to scatter plots, network graphs and phylogenetic trees, structural formulae and protein models to flow diagrams, visual aids for problem-solving are omnipresent. The ISCB Art in Science Competition 2017 at the ISCB/ECCB 2017 conference in Prague offered a way to show the beauty of science in art form. Past artworks in this annual exhibition at ISMB combined outstanding beauty and aesthetics with deep insight that perfectly validated the exhibit’s approach or went beyond the problem's solution. Others were surprising and inspiring through the transition from science to art, opening eyes and minds to reflect on the work being undertaken.

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