Some Fictions Are Bigger Than Other Fictions. an In-Depth Study of John Green’s

criticism of Fictional realism.

In R. Hanley’s article named ‘Ado about Nothing: Critical Realism Examined’ (2003), he claims fictional realism is not as effect at his coined term, critical realism. On page 123, he explains:

“Many if not most philosophers of fiction end up embracing fictional realism, … Positing fictional characters usually requires trading off some ontological intuitions, perhaps in favour of semantic ones. But a recent fictional realist vfictional entities, they do not exist.

M.2 Fictional cats are cats (more generally: fictional Fs are Fs).

M.3 Fictional entities are ontologically incomplete: for every typical fictional entity x, there is some property P, such that x neither has nor lacks P.” (Schnieder, B 2010, p. 280)

Further into this article, he raises some of the difficulties with this account, as not all readers who believe in fictional entities agree with these ideas. These readers are named ‘Meinongians’, who believe in non-existent objects. For example, these people may believe a Pegasus still exists when it is mentioned in a novel. However, this relates more to magical realism. Due to the fact these Meinongains believe what they read must be real, Schneider must have added this type of reader into his article to use as a counter argument to this theory. He later uses a more in-depth example of this Meinongian belief.fictional entities, they do not exist.

M.2 Fictional cats are cats (more generally: fictional Fs are Fs).

M.3 Fictional entities are ontologically incomplete: for every typical fictional entity x, there is some property P, such that x neither has nor lacks P.” (Schnieder, B 2010, p. 280)

Further into this article, he raises some of the difficulties with this account, as not all readers who believe in fictional entities agree with these ideas.

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