Single Idea 19490

[catalogued under 7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 7. Fictionalism]

Full Idea

Make-believe games can make it easier to reason about facts, to systematize them, to visualize them, to spot connections with other facts, and to evaluate potential lines of research.

Gist of Idea

Make-believe can help us to reason about facts and scientific procedures

Source

Stephen Yablo (Does Ontology Rest on a Mistake? [1998], XI)

Book Reference

Yablo,Stephen: 'Things: Philosophical Papers vol. 2' [OUP 2010], p.132


A Reaction

This is the key pragmatic defence of the fictionalist view of abstract objects. Fictions are devices to help us think better. I think a lot of ontology turns out that way.

Related Idea

Idea 10004 Our minds are at their best when reasoning about objects [Hofweber]