Ontology Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Ontology of fictional characters === {{Cleanup section|reason=This section requires an introduction and some signaling language.|date=March 2023}} According to [[Edward N. Zalta]], the ontology of fiction analyses such sentences as:<ref>[[Edward N. Zalta|Zalta, Edward N.]] 2009. "Fictional truth, objects, and characters." pp. 267–269 in ''A Companion to Metaphysics'' (2nd ed.), edited by J. Kim G. S. Rosenkrantz, and E. Sosa. [[Chichester]], UK: [[Wiley-Blackwell|Wiley–Blackwell]]. {{ISBN|978-1405152983}}. p. 267.</ref> * '[[Nero]] worshipped (the god) [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]]'; * '[[Mars (mythology)|Mars]], the god, does not exist'; and, * '[[Eliza Doolittle]], in [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s [[Pygmalion (play)|''Pygmalion'']], is a flower girl'. According to [[Amie L. Thomasson]], fictional discourse can be of four sorts: * uttered ''within'' works of fiction; * philosophical exercises such as '[[Captain Marvel (DC Comics)|Captain Marvel]] does not exist'; * treating fictional characters as if they were 'real', such as '[[Superman]] can leap tall buildings;' and, * discourse ''about'' works of fiction, such as '[[Pygmalion (play)|Professor Higgins]] was created by [[George Bernard Shaw]]'.<ref name="Thomasson">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Fictional Entities |last=Thomasson |first=Amie L. |author-link=Amie Thomasson |url=https://uh.edu/~garson/Thomasson%20-%20Fictional%20Entities.pdf |encyclopedia=A Companion to Metaphysics |editor1-last=Kim |editor1-first=Jaegwon |editor-last2=Sosa |editor-first2=Ernest |editor-last3=Rosenkrantz |editor-first3=Gary S. |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |year=2009 |edition=Second}}</ref> [[Jeremy Bentham]] distinguished three kinds of entities:<ref>Harrison, R. (2009). Jeremy Bentham, p. 145 in ''A Companion to Metaphysics'', ed. Kim, J., Rosenkrantz, G.S., Sosa, E., Wiley–Blackwell, Chichester UK, 2nd ed., {{ISBN|978-1405152983}}.</ref> * the ''real'': those that can be perceived, or can be inferred from perception * the ''fictitious'': abstractions that referred to perceptible things; and, * the ''fabulous'': those that can be found only in the imagination, where the word 'exist' applies to such only in the sense that they do not really exist. [[Francis Herbert Bradley]] thought that real things exist, respectively, at particular times and places. He recognized several kinds of entity:<ref>Stock, G. (2009). Francis Herbert Bradley, pp. 155–158 in ''A Companion to Metaphysics'', ed. Kim, J., Rosenkrantz, G.S., Sosa, E., Wiley–Blackwell, Chichester UK, 2nd ed., {{ISBN|978-1405152983}}, p. 157.</ref> * the genuinely historical; * the fictional; * the real; * the merely imagined; * the existent; and, * the non-existent. [[Alexius Meinong]] would put fictional entities into the category that he called ''subsistence''.<ref name=":0"/> This category contains objects that neither exist spatially or non-spatially. However, they do have properties. The properties are given to these objects in the way they are said to be described. For example, we can talk about the tall unicorn even though the tall unicorn does not exist. We can say the unicorn is, in fact, tall because this follows from the properties in which the object is characterized.<ref name=":0">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Fictional Entities |last1=Kroon |first1=Fred |last2=Voltolini |first2=Alberto |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |encyclopedia=[[The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |year=2018 |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2018/entries/fictional-entities }}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page