Seeing the Fictional

Abstract

When we see a movie or a play, do we see the fictional entities and events depicted? On the one hand, it seems incredibly natural tothink we do. For instance, it seems obvious that one thing that differentiates Smith, who watches Star Wars, from Bob, who merelyreads the novelization of Star Wars, is that Smith, but not Bob, has seen Darth Vader kill Obi-Wan Kenobi. Yet, no philosophersworking on fiction think this is literally true. And they have good reasons to be skeptical. For, if you have seen Darth Vader killObi-Wan Kenobi, then it seems to follow that Darth Vader must have killed Obi-Wan Kenobi, in which case, it follows that bothwere at one point living, flesh-and-blood, entities. But if Darth Vader is a flesh and blood being, then he must be spatiotemporallylocated, in which case, where is he? In this paper, I argue that we do in fact literally see (and hear) fictional entities when we seefilms. I do so in three stages. First, I argue against various error theories that attempt to account for the intuitions that we do seefictional entities in film. Then, I sketch a metaphysics of fictional entities, which vindicates our genuinely seeing them. Finally, Iexplore some of the interesting controversies and objections raised to this ontology of the fictional.