Singular Reference in Fictional Discourse?

Abstract

Singular terms used in fictions for fictional characters raise well-known philosophical issues, explored in depth in the literature. But philosophers typically assume that names already in use to refer to 'moderate-sized specimens of dry goods' cause no special problem when occurring in fictions, behaving there as they ordinarily do in straightforward assertions. In this paper I continue a debate with Stacie Friend, arguing against this for the exceptionalist view that names of real entities in fictional discourse don't work there as they do in simple-sentence assertions, but rather as fictional names do.