Fictionalism
- LAST REVIEWED: 08 October 2015
- LAST MODIFIED: 24 July 2012
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396577-0034
- LAST REVIEWED: 08 October 2015
- LAST MODIFIED: 24 July 2012
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396577-0034
Introduction
The term “fictionalism” is defined in many different ways. The most common definition is along these lines: fictionalism about a discourse claims that the sentences of the discourse are useful but does not claim that they are true. Typically, fictionalists will deny that sentences of the discourse are true. Thus a fictionalist in the philosophy of mathematics may say that mathematical sentences (such as “2 + 2 = 4”) are useful but false: numbers are (in some sense) “useful fictions.” Fictionalists will typically recommend that we should carry on using the sentences in question, accepting them without believing them. This is known as “revolutionary fictionalism.” According to “hermeneutic fictionalism,” we do not currently believe what the sentences say (even if we seem to believe them). Fictionalist approaches have been discussed with respect to many different discourses. This bibliography provides a highly selective guide to the burgeoning literature, chosen on the basis of importance, influence, and accessibility. Fictionalist accounts of mathematical, moral, and possible-worlds talk have been the subject of especially intense debate; but fictionalist treatments of a great number of other discourses have been offered. It is worth noting that fictionalist positions are not always given the name “fictionalism.”
Overview and Collection
Although surveys of fictionalism are rare, the excellent Eklund 2007 is available for free online. Kalderon 2005 includes papers on various forms of fictionalism (mathematical, moral, modal, etc.).
Eklund, Matti. Fictionalism. In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Edited by Edward N. Zalta. 2007.
Excellent critical survey of fictionalism, covering the varieties of fictionalism, arguments for and against fictionalist views, and reflections on the broader philosophical significance of fictionalism.
Kalderon, Mark, ed. Fictionalism in Metaphysics. Oxford: Clarendon, 2005.
Valuable collection that includes papers on many different forms of fictionalism (mathematical, moral, modal, etc.).
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Article
- A Priori Knowledge
- Abortion
- Action
- Adorno, Theodor
- Aesthetics, Analytic Approaches to
- Aesthetics, Continental
- Aesthetics, History of
- Alexander, Samuel
- Analytic/Synthetic Distinction
- Anarchism, Philosophical
- Animal Rights
- Anscombe, G. E. M.
- Anthropic Principle, The
- Applied Ethics
- Aquinas, Thomas
- Argument Mapping
- Art and Knowledge
- Art and Morality
- Artifacts
- Assertion
- Atheism
- Aurelius, Marcus
- Austin, J. L.
- Autonomy
- Bacon, Francis
- Bayesianism
- Beauty
- Belief
- Bergson, Henri
- Berkeley, George
- Bolzano, Bernard
- British Idealism
- Buber, Martin
- Buddhist Philosophy
- Burge, Tyler
- Camus, Albert
- Carnap, Rudolf
- Causation
- Certainty
- Chemistry, Philosophy of
- Chinese Philosophy
- Cognitive Ability
- Cognitive Phenomenology
- Cognitive Science, Philosophy of
- Coherentism
- Color
- Communitarianism
- Computational Science
- Comte, Auguste
- Concepts
- Conceptual Role Semantics
- Conditionals
- Confirmation
- Confucius
- Connectionism
- Consciousness
- Consequentialism, Ethical
- Constructive Empiricism
- Contemporary African Philosophy
- Contemporary Hylomorphism
- Contextualism
- Contrastivism
- Culture and Cognition
- Daoism and Philosophy
- Davidson, Donald
- de Beauvoir, Simone
- de Montaigne, Michel
- Death
- Decision Theory
- Deleuze, Gilles
- Democracy
- Depiction
- Derrida, Jacques
- Descartes, René
- Descriptions
- Dialetheism
- Disability
- Disagreement, Epistemology of
- Disjunctivism
- Dispositions
- Doing and Allowing
- Dummett, Michael
- Dutch Book Arguments
- Early Modern Philosophy, 1600-1750
- Education, Philosophy of
- Emotion
- Environmental Philosophy
- Epicurus
- Epistemic Basing Relation
- Epistemic Injustice
- Epistemic Justification
- Epistemic Philosophy of Logic
- Epistemology
- Epistemology and Active Externalism
- Epistemology, Feminist
- Epistemology, Moral
- Epistemology Of Education
- Epistemology, Reasons in
- Ethical Intuitionism
- Ethics of Engineering, Philosophy and
- Eugenics and Philosophy
- Events, The Philosophy of
- Evidence
- Evidence-Based Medicine, Philosophy of
- Evidential Support Relation In Epistemology, The
- Evil
- Evolutionary Debunking Arguments in Ethics
- Evolutionary Epistemology
- Experimental Philosophy
- Explanations of Religion
- Extended Mind Thesis, The
- Externalism and Internalism in the Philosophy of Mind
- Fatalism
- Feminist Metaphysics
- Feminist Philosophy
- Feyerabend, Paul
- Fiction
- Fictionalism
- Fictionalism in the Philosophy of Mathematics
- Film, Philosophy of
- Foreknowledge
- Forgiveness
- Formal Epistemology
- Foucault, Michel
- Free Will
- Frege, Gottlob
- Gadamer, Hans-Georg
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: Aesthetics
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: Metaphysics
- God and Possible Worlds
- God, Arguments for the Existence of
- God, The Existence and Attributes of
- Grice, Paul
- Heaven and Hell
- Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich: Philosophy of History
- Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich: Philosophy of Politics
- Heidegger, Martin: Early Works
- Hermeneutics
- Higher Education, Philosophy of
- History, Philosophy of
- Hobbes, Thomas
- Horkheimer, Max
- Human Rights
- Hume, David: Moral and Political Philosophy
- Husserl, Edmund
- Idealizations in Science
- Identity in Physics
- Imagination
- Imagination and Belief
- Impossible Worlds
- Incommensurability in Science
- Indian Philosophy
- Indispensability of Mathematics
- Inductive Reasoning
- Infinitism
- Instruments in Science
- Intellectual Humility
- Intuitions
- James, William
- Kant and the Laws of Nature
- Kant, Immanuel: Aesthetics and Teleology
- Kant, Immanuel: Ethics
- Kant, Immanuel: Theoretical Philosophy
- Kierkegaard, Søren
- Knowledge
- Knowledge-How
- Kuhn, Thomas S.
- Lacan, Jacques
- Lakatos, Imre
- Language of Thought
- Language, Philosophy of
- Latin American Philosophy
- Laws of Nature
- Legal Philosophy
- Legal Positivism
- Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm
- Levinas, Emmanuel
- Liberty
- Literature, Philosophy of
- Locke, John
- Locke, John: Identity, Persons, and Personal Identity
- Logic
- Lottery and Preface Paradoxes, The
- Lucretius
- Machiavelli, Niccolò
- Marx, Karl
- Mathematical Explanation
- Mathematical Pluralism
- Mathematical Structuralism
- Mathematics, Philosophy of
- McDowell, John
- McTaggart, John
- Meaning of Life, The
- Medically Assisted Dying
- Medicine, Contemporary Philosophy of
- Medieval Logic
- Medieval Philosophy
- Memory
- Mereology
- Meta-epistemological Skepticism
- Metaepistemology
- Metaethics
- Metametaphysics
- Metaphilosophy
- Metaphor
- Metaphysics, Contemporary
- Mind, Metaphysics of
- Modal Epistemology
- Modality
- Models and Theories in Science
- Modularity
- Montesquieu
- Moore, G. E.
- Moral Contractualism
- Moral Naturalism and Nonnaturalism
- Moral Responsibility
- Multiculturalism
- Music, Analytic Philosophy of
- Nationalism
- Natural Kinds
- Naturalism in the Philosophy of Mathematics
- Naïve Realism
- Neo-Confucianism
- Nietzsche, Friedrich
- Nonexistent Objects
- Normative Ethics
- Normative Foundations, Philosophy of Law:
- Normativity and Social Explanation
- Occasionalism
- Olfaction
- Ontological Dependence
- Ontology of Art
- Ordinary Objects
- Other Minds
- Pacifism
- Pain
- Panpsychism
- Paradoxes
- Particularism in Ethics
- Pascal, Blaise
- Paternalism
- Peirce, Charles Sanders
- Perception, Cognition, Action
- Perception, The Problem of
- Persistence
- Personal Identity
- Phenomenal Concepts
- Phenomenal Conservatism
- Phenomenology
- Philosophy of Biology
- Philosophy of Risk
- Physicalism
- Physicalism and Metaphysical Naturalism
- Physics, Experiments in
- Plato
- Plotinus
- Political Obligation
- Political Philosophy
- Pornography and Objectification, Analytic Approaches to
- Practical Knowledge
- Practical Moral Skepticism
- Practical Reason
- Pragmatics
- Pragmatism
- Problem of Divine Hiddenness, The
- Problem of Evil, The
- Propositions
- Psychology, Philosophy of
- Punishment
- Pyrrhonism
- Qualia
- Quietism
- Quine, W.V.O.
- Race
- Racist Jokes
- Rationalism
- Rationality
- Rawls: Moral and Political Philosophy, John
- Realism and Anti-Realism
- Realization
- Reductionism in Biology
- Reference, Theory of
- Reid, Thomas
- Relativism
- Reliabilism
- Religion, Philosophy of
- Religious Belief, Epistemology of
- Religious Experience
- René Descartes: Sensory Representations
- Ricoeur, Paul
- Rights
- Rorty, Richard
- Rousseau, Jean-Jacques
- Rule-Following
- Russell, Bertrand
- Sartre, Jean-Paul
- Schopenhauer, Arthur
- Science and Religion
- Scientific Explanation
- Scientific Progress
- Scientific Realism
- Scientific Representation
- Scientific Revolutions
- Scotus, Duns
- Self-Knowledge
- Sellars, Wilfrid
- Semantic Externalism
- Semantic Minimalism
- Semiotics
- Seneca
- Singular Thought
- Situationism and Virtue Theory
- Skepticism, Contemporary
- Skepticism, History of
- Social Aspects of Scientific Knowledge
- Social Epistemology
- Space and Time
- Speech Acts
- Spinoza, Baruch
- Structural Realism
- Suicide
- Supererogation
- Supervenience
- Tarski, Alfred
- Technology, Philosophy of
- Testimony, Epistemology of
- Thomas Aquinas' Philosophy of Religion
- Thought Experiments
- Time and Tense
- Time Travel
- Toleration
- Torture
- Transcendental Arguments
- Tropes
- Trust
- Truth
- Truth and the Aim of Belief
- Truthmaking
- Turing Test
- Two-Dimensional Semantics
- Understanding
- Vagueness
- Value of Knowledge
- Vienna Circle
- Virtue Epistemology
- Virtue Ethics
- War
- Weakness of Will
- Well-Being
- William of Ockham
- Williams, Bernard
- Wisdom
- Wittgenstein, Ludwig: Early Works
- Wittgenstein, Ludwig: Later Works
- Wittgenstein, Ludwig: Middle Works
- Wollstonecraft, Mary