Every fictitious entity must be discussed as if it were real
Evidence
To be spoken of at all, every fictitious entity must be spoken of as if it were real. This, it will be seen, is the case with the above-mentioned pair of fictitious entities of the first remove. — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 385
Categorization
- DEFINE: Fundamental rule of Bentham’s ontology — fictitious entities only become speakable by being dressed as real ones.
- XREF: connects to: No higher language could exist without the fiction that dresses abstractions as real — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 398; Legal rights exert real effects despite being fictitious entities — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 71; All thought about the mind requires speaking in fictional spatial terms — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 408
Related
- No higher language could exist without the fiction that dresses abstractions as real (similarity 0.86)
- Mental faculties like will and memory are fictitious entities, not real ones. (similarity 0.86)
- Bentham found reality unproblematic and fictions philosophically complicated. (similarity 0.83)
- Legal rights exert real effects despite being fictitious entities (similarity 0.82)
- Space is a semi-real entity, neither fully physical nor psychical (similarity 0.78)
- All thought about the mind requires speaking in fictional spatial terms (similarity 0.78)
- All noun-substantives name entities, which divide into perceptible-inferential and real-fictitious. (similarity 0.78)
- Time depends on space, itself a fictitious entity, for any meaning (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Legal rights exert real effects despite being fictitious entities
#corroborates(0.80) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 71 - All thought about the mind requires speaking in fictional spatial terms
#exemplifies(0.78) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 408