ABSTRACT
We classify novels, short stories, many films, some ballets, and so on, as works of fiction, and histories, biographies, newspaper articles, documentaries, and so on, as works of nonfiction. How should we distinguish these categories? The most popular philosophical definitions of fiction today maintain that they are distinguished by the attitudes they invite: whereas nonfiction invites belief, fiction invites imagining. In this chapter I consider these and related theories of fiction, as well as reasons to be skeptical that fiction can be defined by the contrast between imagination and belief.
