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Can a Fictional Story Have a Connection to Reality?
- Thread starter Treasure Hunter
- Start date
I've demonstrated how to think through your question -- why don't you try to do it yourself?
Just one caveat as you do so -- be very wary of self-references. You know, watch out for the "Epimenides Cretan Liar" paradox. You know, where Epimendes, who is a Cretan, says "All Cretans are liars."
Treasure Hunter
Well-Known Member
I’m not confused about any of this.
A completely fictional story (characters, settings, history, etc.) can still be connected to reality as I understand it. The connection could be allegorical or designed to address questions that we may have to address some time in the future. It could be a moral lesson.
Some of my favorite science fictions stories are completely fictional in characters, locations, culture and history, but they can still be connected to reality in how science is referenced in those works or just the logic employed in telling the tales.
In a way. The story is the product of a mind. The details may be imagined, but it is based on some aspect of reality. I am not certain if a story can be totally divorced from some aspect of reality. Even a supposedly true story about being abducted by aliens, which I find difficult to accept, can provide insights that can alter how a person thinks.
I am wondering where you are going with this.
Nor are you very forthcoming. It begins to seem disingenuous, you know what I mean? I've tried to answer every one of your questions carefully and honestly, within the (narrow) bounds of my philosophical abilities. You might, out of courtesy, try doing the same.
Unless, of course, you'd rather not.
Closest story I think I can recall that really did not come close to any reality I know is the Trafalmadorian portions of Kurt Vonnegut's novel, "Slaughterhouse Five."
ideas, if they are being thought, are real. They may not be about real things, but the ideas themselves are real.
Morality is a type of idea and is real in that sense, as are emotions and thoughts.
But morality does not exist outside of human minds, just like fictional characters do not exist outside of human minds.
Don't get confused about the distinction between an idea and what that idea is about.
A thought of a unicorn is a real thought with real physical aspects. The unicorn, however, is not real.
By content, do you mean what the idea is about? Then, yes, the content of an idea can be real (for example, the idea of a chair---chairs are real things). But the content may also be un-real (like the idea of vampire--vampires are not real).
Truth is defined by correspondence with reality. Falsehoods are those things whose negations are truths.
Not all lies are false: a person can state something they don't believe in (which would be a lie), but they could be wrong and it might be true.
Thanks. I was trying to think of some examples of stories that were disconnected from reality.
The works of Henry Darger keep coming to mind. But even very fantastical stories have some connection, even if minor, transient or trivial.
The idea in my mind is real because it is produced by brain activity, which is real.
An idea is real when it there is something in reality that is that idea. The content of an idea is what that idea is about. That content may or may not be real even if the idea is real (in someone's mind).
So, an idea of a unicorn is a real idea of a fictional thing. An idea of a chair is a real idea of a real thing.
it isn't that difficult.
Do you know how much typing I could stop doing if only I could express myself more succinctly, as you do?
It takes me 500 words to say "hello," sometimes.
You are mistaken. I can think about the chair in my room. The content of that idea (the chair) is then real.
Yes, by definition truth corresponds to reality.
The term 'better' is one that compares value judgements. So it is an idea that we use to judge the world around us. But each of us has a slightly different use of that word. So, for me, garlic is better than onions. For others, it is the reverse. It has to do with our preferences.
But, since truth corresponds to reality and falsehoods do not, it is usually better to believe in truths since the decisions you then make will more correspond to reality.
By definition, a worse morality would mean that the world would be worse if it was adopted.
Morality is neither true nor false. It is a value that we either have or do not.
Imagine a device. An invention to address some observed need. It does not exist in any way, shape or form outside of my mind. I imagine it functioning. I picture in my mind how it is designed and how it operates. In a sense it is fictional, since a real example of that device doesn't exist and never has.
What then is it?
What then is it?
I have a life outside of RF, hard as it is to believe.
Hide from Christians....they'll try to ban your books about witchcraft, and who knows what tortures they have in mind for the free spirited.
The source of creation for leprechauns? Maybe it's a machine to make the magic work?
You are not even close to being as bad as you describe or anything like I have seen.Do you know how much typing I could stop doing if only I could express myself more succinctly, as you do?
It takes me 500 words to say "hello," sometimes.
I should get one of those. I guess I do, but I am not sure if you could call it life these days.