Pararealities : the nature of our fictions and how we know them / / Floyd Merrell

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910956941403321
• Autore: Merrell Floyd <1937->
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Amsterdam ; ; Philadelphia, : Benjamins, 1983
• ISBN: 1-283-35943-X; 9786613359438; 90-272-8029-0
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (182 pages)
• Collana: Purdue University monographs in Romance languages, , 0165-8743 ; ; v. 12
• Disciplina: 801/.9
• Soggetti: Fictions, Theory of; Reality; Knowledge, Theory of
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references.
• Nota di contenuto: PARAREALITIES: THE NATURE OF OUR FICTIONS AND HOW WE KNOW THEM; Editorial page; Title page; Table of contents; Foreword; Chapter One; 1.1 POSTULATE I: The Initial Cut in the Flux of Experience Results in an Elemental Negation Whereby That which Is Is Contrasted with That which It Is Not.; 1.2 POSTULATE II: Negation Is Possible Only with Respect to Something.; Chapter Two; 2.0 THEOREM I: Knowing What a Fiction Is Entails Tacit Knowledge of What It Is Not.; 2.1 How the Range of All Possible Fictions Can Be Made Intelligible; 2.2 Conception/Perception-Imagination of Fictions Entails a Fictional Operator 2.3 To Conceive/Perceive-Imagine a Fiction Is to Oscillate between What the ""Real World"" Is and What It Is Not.; 2.4 Fictional Responses Vary with Respect to the Type of Fictional Constructs.; 2.5 On the Nature of the Barrier between Fictions and the ""Real World""; 2.6 Fictional Worlds versus Dream Worlds; Chapter Three; 3.0 THEOREM II: Knowing What a Fiction Is Entails Knowing Part of the Intrinsic Background of Possibilities.; 3.1 Foundations for a Model of the Intrinsic Background.; 3.2 The Relationship between Language, Images, and Fictions with Respect to the Intrinsic Background.3.3 The Intrinsic Background as an ; Unlimited Set of Possibilities; 3.4 On the Interface between the Intrinsic Background and the ""Real World.""; 3.5 A Postulated Common Base for Mathematics, Scientific Fictions, and Natural Language Fictions.; Chapter Four; 4.0 THEOREM III: Knowing a Fiction Entails an Initial Split between Knower and Known.; 4.1 Preliminaries; 4.2 The Many Worlds of Fictions; 4.3 The Schizophrenic Self and Its Self-Consuming Fictions; 4.4 The Domain of Imaginary Worlds: Jungle or Labyrinth 4.5 Continuity versus Discontinuity; 4.6 The Potential for Imaginary Worlds; 4.7 The Upper Bounds o f Imaginary Worlds; Chapter Five; 5.0 THEOREM IV: Knowing a Fiction Begins at the Limits of the/a ""Real World.""; 5.1 Toward a Formal Model of the Upper Bounds Representing the Range of All Possible Fictional Sentences.; Epilogue: Some Speculation Beyond; Appendix I; Appendix II; Appendix III; Notes; References
• Sommario/riassunto: The objective of this study is to inquire, from a broad epistemological view, into the underlying nature of fictions, and above all, to discover how it is possible to create and process them. In Chapter One, I put forth four "postulates" in the form of though experiments. in Chapter Two I turn attention to make-believe, imaginary, and dream worlds, and how they can be conceived and perceived only with respect to the/a "real world." Chapter Three includes a discussion of the affinities and differences between one's tacit knowledge of certain aspects of the number system in arithmetic (an ordered series) and the range of all possible fictional entities (an unordered network). In Chapter Four I establish more precisely the relations between one's "real world" and one's fictional worlds in light of the conclusions from Chapter Three. And, in Chapter Five, I attempt to construct a formal model with which to account for the construction of all possible fictional sentences.