Abstract

Given that we imagine in response to fictions, the key question is whether these imaginings can be understood in more basic folk psychological terms. This chapter argues that we can determine what is true in a fiction without use of _sui generis_ imaginative states. Related arguments from Derek Matravers (2014) and Kathleen Stock (2017) are discussed in some depth. Uses of genre conventions and symbolism by an author to generate fictional truths do not imply any special role for imagination. Moreover, Stock’s “extreme intentionalist” view of what constitutes truth in fiction can be configured to omit any appeal to imagination. The questions of what generates truth in a fiction, of how we come to know those truths, and of what makes something a fiction can all be answered without appeal to an irreducible mental state of imagining.