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I. Introduction
What do the real names in fiction refer to? Exceptionalism and Non-Exceptionalism answer this question in opposite ways. Exceptionalism not only argues an exception of determination of reference in fiction but also insists real names in fiction refer to fictional surrogates or nothing.[1] On the other hand, Non-exceptionalism does not allow an exception by arguing real names in fiction refer to just real objects.[2]
To be specific, The point that I would like to focus on is a writer intends real names to refer to real objects, but Exceptionalism argues they refer to fictional surrogates. On the contrary, non-exceptionalism argues they refer to real objects.[3] That is, according to exceptionalism, Napoleon in War and Peace refers to a fictional surrogate. According to Non-exceptionalism, Napoleon in War and Peace, Meanwhile, refers to Napoleon who was the French Emperor
Subsequently, I would like to support Non-exceptionalism by introducing
an argument that exceptionalist Motoarca insists on and criticizing this argument.
II. Motoarca ‘s argument
Motoarca purposes the Reference Indeterminacy Argument for exceptionalism. The imaginary situation that Motoarca supposes is as follows.
Consider a long (finite) sequence of fictions (stories) S1, S2, S3, … Sn, each containing a Napoleon character, but not connected to each other. Imagine we arrange these stories in an order of decreasing resemblance with the real person. In each subsequent story, Napoleon appears slightly modified. The stories are written by different authors and they keep getting crazier as we move along the sequence.[4]
For example, If the French emperor Napoleon’s character could be changed over until we don’t recognize him as a French emperor anymore, then how do we refer to Napoleon as French Emperor? Therefore Motoarca illustrates the Reference Inderminate Argument as follows.
(a) All tokens in the sequence, from the first stories to the last, refer to the real Napoleon.
(b) Some tokens refer to the real man (the ones at the beginning), some to a fictional character (toward the end), with an indeterminate area (somewhere in the middle of the sequence). On this view, there will be stories where the reference of the name is just indeterminate.
(c) Some tokens refer to the real man, some to a fictional character, but with a definite cut-off point (there will be a particular point in some story where the reference shifts, as it were).
(P) (a), (b), and (c) are all false.[5]
Motoarca by negating the indeterminate area or cut-off point, All of Napoleon-character refer to not real Napoleon but a fictional surrogate.
To reinforce his argument, He raises three reasons in his paper. First, Aboutness favors exceptionalism. For Napoleon far from the original one is not about Napoleon. Second, indeterminate is Napoleon who mangled up and appeared in fiction S1369. Third, If the Real name Aj in fiction Sj refers to Napoleon while the Real name Aj+1 in fiction Sj+1 does not refer to Napoleon, it could be an arbitrary place where the Sj’s jump occurs. That is, the reference intention is too vague to indeterminate.
III. My opinion
I would like to criticize Motoarca’s argument for supporting non-exceptionalism. First, Aboutness is more explanatory of non-exceptionalism. This can be intuitively seen as the examples like
(1) L’Amant (The Lover) is a novel set in Vietnam.
(2) Ivy Day In the Committee Room is a novel set in Ivy Day.[6]
It is usual utterances when we participate in literary discourse. Furthermore, It is hard to capture the aboutness Motoarca would like to say. Second, I believe Reference Indeterminacy could be explained by a reference of theory, especially Descriptivism. For example, Napoleon in Animal farm refers to not French Emperor Napoleon but Soviet Stalin. Because we could recognize what the character refers to in fiction based on the description of Napoleon in Animal farm.
Finally, I would like to suggest arguing a counterpart to not only Motoarca but exceptionalism, the novel Do you like Brahms… which is written by Francois Sagan. There is a passage in Do you like Brahms… as follows.
"Paule," he said, "calm down. What were you doing with that popinjay, anyway?"
"I was listening to Brahms," she said between laughs.
"Do stop talking about Brahms . . .’[7]
I think if Exceptionalism is right, Exceptionalists bear on burden Brahms in Do you like Brahms should be a fictional surrogate even. Therefore, I would like to express doubt that is embracing exceptionalism worth enough to reject such strong intuitive non-exceptionalism.
References
Park Seongsoo. (2021) Exceptionalism vs Non-Exceptionalism: Real Names in Fictions, Korean Society for Analytic Philosophy 46, pp.29-61
Ioan-Radu Motoarca. (2014) Fictional Surrogates, Philosophia 42 (4), pp.1033-1053
Kroon, Fred and Alberto Voltolini, "Fiction", The Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy (Winter 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/fiction/.
Marguerite Duras. L’Amant(The Lover), translated by Kim In-whan (Seoul: Minumsa, 2007) Francoise Sagan. (2009) Aimez-vous Brahms, Pocket(FR)
James Joyce. (1993) Dubliners, Penguin classics
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[1] As Park(2021) mentioned before, I agree encompassing real names in fiction refer to fictional surrogates and nothing in Non-Exceptionalism is too many points to be taken.
[2] Representative Non-Exceptionalist is Saul Kripke(2013). A name in a story may refer to a real person, that is, really refer to a person. For example, we could have a fictional story about Napoleon. In that case there is no such fictional character as Napoleon; it is rather that a real person is being written about, here in fiction (Kripke 2013: 75).
[3] Park seongsoo. (2021) Exceptionalism vs Non-Exceptionalism: Real Names in Fictions, Korean Society for Analytic Philosophy 46, pp.37
[4] Ioan-Radu Motoarca, (2014) Fictional Surrogates, Philosophia 42 (4), pp.1038
[5] Ioan-Radu Motoarca, (2014) Fictional Surrogates, Philosophia 42 (4), pp.1039
[6] Ivy day is an anniversary that remember the death of Charles Stewart Parnell on 6 October 1891.
[7] Francoise Sagan, Aimez-vous Brahms, Pocket(FR), pp.59