ABSTRACT
Fictional names pose at least two kinds of problem: how, if at all, do they mean anything? And how, if at all, do they affect the truth or other semantic value of sentences in which they occur? Answering the first question is especially difficult if one holds both of the two opinions (1) that all genuine names have bearers and (2) that fictional names do not. One must then conclude that fictional names are a kind of non-name, and one will have to try to explain away their apparent intelligibility. In this paper I shall take for granted one of the views that lead to this difficulty, namely that many fictional names lack bearers. However, I shall take issue with the other component, that a name must have a bearer. A full treatment requires two parts. First, one should undermine the arguments designed to show that all names (or all names of a certain kind) must have bearers. Then one should provide an alternative account. The first of these tasks is undertaken in §2. The second task is a large one and only a small part of it will be attempted here, starting in §3.1 There I consider whether we can make use of the notion of make-believe to give a positive account of what is involved in understanding a fictional name. In §4 I discuss what difference, if any, “really” makes to the truth conditions of sentences, especially those which involve fiction.
