Readings

The van Inwagen and Salmon papers should be available in the philosophy department (soon). (Van Inwagen's arguments are recapped in several of the other readings. These are sufficient for you to get the gist of van Inwagen's idea. It's best to take a look at the original though.) Caplan's paper, "Creatures of Myth, Fiction, and Imagination" is here. Takashi Yagisawa's paper, "Against Creationism in Fiction", is here. For arguments that there are empty names, review section 3.3. of Chapter 2 of Caplan's dissertation and section 8 of Braun's paper, "Empty Names, Fictional Names, Mythical Names".