Fictionalism consists in at least the following three theses: • Claims made within the
domain of discourse are taken to be truth-apt; that is, true or false. • The domain of discourse is to be interpreted at face value—not reduced to meaning something else. • The aim of discourse in any given domain is not truth, but some other virtue(s) (e.g., simplicity, explanatory scope). Two important strands of fictionalism are:
modal fictionalism developed by
Gideon Rosen, which states that
possible worlds, regardless of whether they exist or not, may be a part of a useful discourse, and
mathematical fictionalism advocated by
Hartry Field. Modal fictionalism is recognized as further refinement to the basic fictionalism as it holds that representations of possible worlds in texts are useful fictions. Conceptualization explains that it is a descriptive theorizing of what a text, such as the
Bible, amounts to. Fictionalism, on the other hand, in the
philosophy of mathematics states that talk of numbers and other mathematical objects is nothing more than a convenience for computation. According to Field, there is no reason to treat parts of mathematics that involve reference to or quantification as true. In this discourse, mathematical objects are accorded the same metaphysical status as literary figures such as
Macbeth.. Many modern versions of fictionalism are influenced by the work of
Kendall Walton in aesthetics. == See also ==