Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T15:43:29.191Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Creator-Determining Problem and Conjunctive Creationism about Fictional Characters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2015

MIN XU*
Affiliation:
Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Abstract

According to standard Creationism about fictional characters, each fictional character is created by its single author independently, or created by its co-authors cooperatively, or created by its independent authors independently. I argue that standard Creationism faces the Creator-Determining Problem. I propose a non-standard form of Creationism, i.e., Conjunctive Creationism, according to which each fictional character is conjunctively created. I argue that Conjunctive Creationism does not face the Creator-Determining Problem. By responding to four potential worries, I provide a further defense. My conclusion is that Conjunctive Creationism is a more promising form of Creationism.

Selon la norme du créationnisme concernant les personnages fictifs, chaque personnage est soit créé indépendamment par son seul auteur, soit créé par ses co-auteurs en collaboration, soit encore créé indépendamment par ses auteurs indépendants. Cette norme doit cependant faire face au problème de l’identification du créateur. Pour éviter ce problème, je propose d’adopter le créationnisme conjonctif, selon lequel chaque personnage est créé conjointement. Je défends cette proposition en répondant à quatre inquiétudes potentielles. Je conclus que le créationnisme conjonctif est une forme plus prometteuse du créationnisme.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, Fred, Fuller, Gary, and Stecker, Robert 1997The Semantics of Fictional Names,” Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 78 (2), 128148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braun, David 2005Empty Names, Fictional Names, Mythical Names,” Noûs, 39 (4), 596631.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brock, Stuart 2002Fictionalism about Fictional Characters,” Noûs, 36 (1), 121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crimmins, Mark 1998Hesperus and Phosphorus: Sense, Pretense, and Reference,” Philosophical Review, 107 (1), 248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chisholm, Roderick Milton 1982 Brentano and Meinong Studies. Amsterdam: Rodopi.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crittenden, Charles 1991 Unreality: The Metaphysics of Fictional Objects. London, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deutsch, Harry 1991The Creation Problem,” Topoi, 10, 209225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Everett, Anthony 2005Against Fictional Realism,” Journal of Philosophy, 102 (12), 624649.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Everett, Anthony 2013 The Non-existents. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Feit, Neil 2009Naming and Nonexistence,” Southern Journal of Philosophy, 47 (3), 239262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fine, Kit 1982The Problem of Non-existents,” Topoi, 1, 97140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fine, Kit 1995Ontological dependence,” Proceedings of the Aristotelian society, 95, New Series, 269290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodman, Nelson 1983 Fact, Fiction, and Forecast. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Goodman, Jeffrey 2004A Defense of Creationism in Fiction,” Grazer Philosophische Studien, 67, 131155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodman, Jeffrey 2005Defending Author-Essentialism,” Philosophy and Literature, 29 (1), 200208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kripke, Saul A. 2011Vacuous Names and Fictional Entities,” in his Philosophical Troubles: Collected Papers (Volume 1). New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kripke, Saul A. 2013 Reference and Existence: The John Locke Lectures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martinich, Aloysius P., and Stroll, Avrum 2007 Much Ado about Nonexistence. Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.Google Scholar
Parsons, Terence 1980 Nonexistent Objects. New Haven, London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Parsons, Terence 2011Fictional Characters and Indeterminate Identity,” in Lihoreau, F. (Ed.) Truth in Fiction. Munich: Ontos Verlag.Google Scholar
Priest, Graham 2005 Towards Non-Being: the Logic and Metaphysics of Intentionality. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quine, Willard V. 1948On What There Is,” The Review of Metaphysics, 2 (5), 2138.Google Scholar
Rapaport, William J. 1979An Adverbial Meinongian Theory,” Analysis, 39 (2), 7581.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sainsbury, Richard M. 2009 Fiction and Fictionalism. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sainsbury, Richard M. 2010Fiction and Acceptance-Relative Truth, Belief, and Assertion,” in Lihoreau, F. (Ed.) Truth in Fiction. Munich: Ontos Verlag.Google Scholar
Sainsbury, Richard M. 2012Of Course there are Fictional Characters,” Revue Internationale De Philosophie, 66, 615630.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salmon, Nathan 1998Nonexistence,” Noûs, 32 (3), 277319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schiffer, Stephen 1996Language-Created Language-Independent Entities,” Philosophical Topics, 24 (1), 149167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Searle, John R. 1975The Logical Status of Fictional Discourse,” New Literary History, 6 (2), 319332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomasson, Amie L. 1999 Fiction and Metaphysics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Thomasson, Amie L. 2003a “Speaking of Fictional Characters,” Dialectica, 57 (2), 207226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomasson, Amie L. 2003b “Fictional Characters and Literary Practices,” British Journal of Aesthetics, 43 (2), 138157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Inwagen, Peter 1977Creatures of Fiction,” American Philosophical Quarterly, 14 (4), 299308.Google Scholar
van Inwagen, Peter 2003Existence, Ontological Commitment, and Fictional Entities,” in Loux, M. and Zimmerman, D. (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Voltolini, Alberto 2006 How Ficta Follow Fiction: A Syncretistic Account of Fictional Entities. Dordrecht: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walton, Kendall L. 1990 Mimesis as Make-Believe. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Yagisawa, Takashi 2001Against Creationism in Fiction,” Philosophical Perspectives, 35 (s15), 153172.Google Scholar
Zalta, Edward N. 1983 Abstract Objects: An Introduction to Axiomatic Metaphysics. Dordrecht, Boston, Lancaster: D. Reidel Publishing Company.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zalta, Edward N. 2000The Road between Pretense Theory and Abstract Object Theory,” in Everett, A. and Hofweber, T. (Eds.) Empty Names, Fiction and the Puzzles of Non-Existence. Stanford: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar