No higher language could exist without the fiction that dresses abstractions as real

Evidence

What will, moreover, be seen, is, that the fiction – the mode of representation by which the fictitious entities thus created, in so far as fictitious entities can be created, are dressed up in the garb, and placed upon the level, of real ones, is a contrivance but for which language, or, at any rate, language in any form superior to that of the language of the brute creation, could not have existence. — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 398

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains why fiction in Bentham’s logical sense is indispensable rather than decorative.
• XREF: connects to: The panopticon’s power rests on a fiction at its core — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 31; Language enables meanings rather than passively carrying them; Readers simultaneously believe fiction and know it is fabricated — Janet Burroway; Elizabeth Stuckey-French; Ned Stuckey-French, Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition: A Guide…, 583 (+4 more)

Related

• Every fictitious entity must be discussed as if it were real (similarity 0.86)
• Bentham found reality unproblematic and fictions philosophically complicated. (similarity 0.82)
• All thought about the mind requires speaking in fictional spatial terms (similarity 0.79)
• Language’s naming habit makes people mistake fictitious entities for real ones (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• The panopticon’s power rests on a fiction at its core #exemplifies (0.90) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 31
• Language enables meanings rather than passively carrying them #expands (0.85)
• All thought about the mind requires speaking in fictional spatial terms #exemplifies (0.80) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 408
• Every fictitious entity must be discussed as if it were real #qualifies (0.78) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 385
• Readers simultaneously believe fiction and know it is fabricated #qualifies (0.75) — Janet Burroway; Elizabeth Stuckey-French; Ned Stuckey-French, Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition, 583