Frodo, Harry Potter, and the Problem of Fictional Objects

Through a slight modification—by introducing three new predicates and a theorem—of the simple quantified modal logic proposed by William Zalta and Bernard Linsky, I create an account of fiction that satisfies our common intuitions along with our stricter philosophical sensibilities. The first chapter provides a comprehensive review of the secondary literature on the matter, from Gottlob Frege to Graham Priest. The second chapter tackles the common ontological problems that propositions including fictional objects face when included in a logical language, critiques paradigmatic positions towards fiction that most philosophers espouse, and further develops the formal semantics for my logical language. The final chapter attempts to resolve some problems relating to the Kripkean essentiality of origin, establishing unique references across possible worlds, and fanfiction