[SydPhil] Update: University of Sydney Philosophy Seminar Series, Jordi Fernandez, (University of Adelaide)

[Ryan Cox]

Hi everyone,

Please disregard the previously advertised room change for today’s talk. The initially planned works are no longer going ahead. The talk will take place in the usual location, the Philosophy Seminar Room (N494).

This week's speaker in the University of Sydney Philosophy Seminar Series is Jordi Fernandez, (University of Adelaide)

The title of the talk is "Imagination and the paradox of fiction". Here is an abstract for the talk:

When we engage with fiction, we seem to have emotions towards fictional characters. However, one would think that, in order to have an emotion towards someone, it is necessary to believe that they are real. And we do not believe that fictional characters are real. I argue that a solution to this puzzle can be found in a certain view about imaginative content. This is the view that, when one reads about a situation or an event involving some fictional character, and one forms a mental image as a result, what one imagines, strictly speaking, is that if one experienced the relevant situation or event, then that experience would be, for one, like having the mental image that one is entertaining. I motivate this view, and use it to propose a solution to the paradox of fiction. The proposal is that, when we engage with fiction, we do not have emotions towards fictional characters after all. At best, we entertain those emotions by having other higher-order mental states which are about them, namely, our imaginative episodes. The proposed solution, I argue, can explain why it feels to us as if we are having emotions towards fictional characters when we engage with fiction, and why, nevertheless, we are not disposed to behave in any particular way towards those characters.

The seminar will take place at 3:30pm on  Wednesday Apr 17 in the Philosophy Seminar Room (N494).

Enquiries about the seminar series can be directed to ryan.cox at sydney.edu.au

Ryan Cox
Associate Lecturer in Philosophy
Discipline of Philosophy
School of Humanities
University of Sydney
ryan.cox at sydney.edu.au
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