SENIOR SEMINAR: FICTION AND FICTIONALISM
PHIL 483, Sec. 1001: MW 11:30AM-12:45pm in CBC C226
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Fall 2022
Professor: James Woodbridge
email address:
Course Webpage: http://jwood.faculty.unlv.edu/unlv/Phil483F22.htm
Office Hours: M 2:30pm-4pm, T 12:30pm-2pm, and by appointment
Office: CDC 426
Office Phone: 895-4051
Dept. Phone: 895-3433
FIRST PAPER
Pick one of following topics and write a 6-8 page/2000-2800 word paper fulfilling the tasks assigned. Do not use any outside resources in writing this paper--just the assigned readings, your notes, and your own thinking.
Your paper is due via WebCampus, through the Turnitin.com program linked to the Assignment listing, before midnight, Sunday 10/30. The file that you send me for your paper must have the following format for its filename: yourstudentnumber.PHIL483F22.paper1.docx. So that I can grade "blind", your name should not appear anywhere on your paper. Finally, you must submit a .docx (or .doc or .docm) file so that I can use Word to make comments on it. If you do not use Word, you must convert your file to this format before submitting it.
Topics:
1. One of the fundamental issues in the philosophy of fiction concerns how to distinguish fiction from non-fiction. In our readings, we considered four different accounts of this distinction, as presented by Searle, Currie/Sainsbury, Walton, and Friend. The first three of these approaches take a connection to pretense or make-believe to be an essential aspect of fiction, albeit in different ways. Briefly explain the different ways these theorists claim that pretense factors into fiction. Pick which one of the three you think is the best view and give arguments for its superiority over the others. Next, contrast the view you have championed with Friend's understanding of fiction, being sure to explain how and why the latter denies that pretense plays an essential role in making something a work of fiction. Finally, argue for the superiority either of the pretense-as-essential view you chose or of Friend's account of fiction.
2. The dispute between realism about fictional characters/entities and irrealism/antirealism on this issue is a central debate in the philosophy of fiction. Explain how the issue arises out of consideration of the different kinds of discourse that pertain to fiction, being sure to indicate where realism about fictional entities does and does not get support and explaining why. Briefly explain why abstract artifactualism (as in Thomasson and Sainsbury, Ch. 5) has become the favored version of fictional realism, in contrast with Meinongianism and nonactualism/possiblism. What challenge to this version of fictional realism leads to the introduction of the distinction between exemplifying properties and encoding them? Explain this distinction. Does its introduction adequately address the challenge? Explain why or why not. Next, explain the basics of a Walton-style pretense-based irrealist account of the kind of discourse about fiction that fictional realists take to support their position (see Friend's "Fictional Characters" and Everett on this as well). Are there problems that render this sort of irrealist account inadequate, or does it hold up? Do you think fictional realism or fictional irrealism is the better position in this debate? Back up your view with arguments.
Be sure to look at my Paper Requirements and Policies.
Keep your paper within the page limit!