Abstract

This chapter defends a view according to which the identity and distinctness of fictional characters is, in a sense that they explain, brute. The authors compare this view with two of its rivals, which are due to Terence Parsons, on the one hand, and to Benjamin Schnieder and Tatjana von Solodkoff, on the other. A common objection to the view defended here is that it leads to an unacceptable arbitrariness about how many fictional characters there are. But the chapter argues that, at least as far as arbitrariness is concerned, there is no reason to reject the view in favor of either of its rivals.