Why Do Fiction Exist

In this essay, I will discuss the ontology of fictional characters and events. At first glance, such a topic may seem absurd. Fiction is often understood as something fabricated by the imagination, separating itself from reality. However, does this mean that fictional characters and events cannot exist? I wish to explore this topic, looking at certain aspects of fiction, such as how fictional objects can actually exist, how one may even discuss the fictional, and characters as literary artefacts.

Firstly there is an important distinction among fictional objects and descriptions. Fictional objects are imaginary characters, locations, and events. Fictional descriptions conversely, are untrue statements such as ‘Shakespeare travelled to Mars for Christmas’. While all the objects in the sentence are real, it is an untrue statement. As we draw these distinctions, one …show more content…
It is vacuously true iff there are no possible worlds where f is told as known fact” . Simply put, a fictional scenario can exist in a possible world where those existing in said world takes a book such as The Hobbit as a true account as well as the events in the book actually being true. Having a possible world where the fictional account is a true one means that because the fictional book is the same in the actual world and the other possible world, one can say that the fictional characters and events truly exist. One may not know every detail; such as the weather or how many hairs Bilbo Baggins has on his head. To fix this problem, Lewis creates a set of worlds where there can be certain