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Fictionalism and Meinongianism
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Fictionalism and Meinongianism

Nathaniel Gan
Theoria (Madrid, Spain), Vol.36(1), pp.49-62
01/01/2021

Abstract

Arts & Humanities History & Philosophy Of Science Philosophy
Fictionalism about a kind of disputed object is often motivated by the fact that the view interprets discourse about those objects literally without an ontological commitment to them. This paper argues that this motivation is inadequate because some viable alternatives to fictionalism have similar attractions. Meinongianism-the view that there are true statements about non-existent objects-is one such view. Meinongianism bears significant similarity to fictionalism, so intuitive doubts about its viability are difficult to sustain for fictionalists. Moreover, Meinongianism avoids some of fictionalism's weaknesses, thus it is even preferable to fictionalism in some respects.
url
https://doi.org/10.1387/theoria.21727View
Published (Version of record) Open

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