An object of the mind is an object that Existence in the mind or imagination, but which, in the real world, can only be represented or modeled. Some such objects are , and in literature and fiction.
Closely related are intentional objects, which are what thoughts and feelings are intentionality, even if they are not about anything real (such as thoughts about , or feelings of apprehension about a dental appointment which is subsequently cancelled). Tim Crane - Intentional Objects. However, intentional objects may coincide with real objects (as in thoughts about horses, or a feeling of regret about a missed appointment).
Many more mathematical formulas describe shapes that are unfamiliar, or do not necessarily correspond to objects in the real world. For example, the Klein bottleEdward Burger, & Michael Starbird, "A One-Sided, Sealed Surface—The Klein Bottle", in E. B. Burger, M. Starbird, T. Stonebarger, & T. Dunton, Joy of Thinking: The Beauty and Power of Classical Mathematical Ideas (Chantilly, VA: The Teaching Company, 2003). is a one-sided, sealed surface with no inside or outside (in other words, it is the three-dimensional equivalent of the Möbius strip).Ari Ben-Menahem, Historical Encyclopedia of Natural and Mathematical Sciences (New York: Springer, 2009), p. 2029. Such objects can be represented by twisting and cutting or taping pieces of paper together, as well as by computer simulations. To hold them in the imagination, abstractions such as extra or fewer dimensions are necessary.
In general, a logical antecedent is a sufficient condition, and a logical consequent is a necessary condition (or the contingency) in a logical conditional. But logical conditionals accounting only for necessity and sufficiency do not always reflect every day if-then reasoning, and for this reason they are sometimes known as material conditionals. In contrast, indicative conditionals, sometimes known as non-material conditionals,Payne, W. R., "The Non-material Conditional". attempt to describe if-then reasoning involving hypotheticals, fictions, or counterfactuals.
Truth tables for if-then statements identify four unique combinations of premises and conclusions: true premises and true conclusions; false premises and true conclusions; true premises and false conclusions; false premises and false conclusions. Strict conditionals assign a positive truth-value to every case except the case of a true premise and a false conclusion. This is sometimes regarded as counterintuitive, but makes more sense when false conditions are understood as objects of the mind.
The subjects of literature are sometimes false antecedents. Examples include the contents of false documents, the origins of phenomena, or the implications of loaded words. Moreover, artificial sources, personalities, events, and histories. False antecedents are sometimes referred to as "nothing", or "nonexistent", whereas nonexistent referents are not referred to.Nickerson, R. S., Conditional Reasoning: The Unruly Syntactics, Semantics, Thematics, and Pragmatics of "If" (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 5–258.
Art and acting often portray scenarios without any antecedent other than an artist's imagination. For example, mythical heroes, legendary creatures, gods and goddesses.
As an example, the name of a team, a genre, or a nation is a collective term applied ex post facto to a group of distinct individuals. None of the individuals on a sports team is the team itself, nor is any musical chord a genre, nor any person America. The name is an identity for a collection that is connected by consensus or reference, but not by sequence. A different name could equally follow, but it would have different social or political significance.
Objects of the mind are frequently involved in the roles that people play. For example, acting is a profession which predicates real jobs on fictional premises. Charades is a game people play by guessing imaginary objects from short play-acts.
Imaginary personalities and histories are sometimes invented to enhance the verisimilitude of fictional universes, and/or the immersion of role-playing games. In the sense that they exist independently of extant personalities and histories, they are believed to be fictional characters and fictional time frames.
Science fiction is abundant with future times, alternate times, and past times that are objects of the mind. For example, in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, the number 1984 represented a year that had not yet passed.
also represent objects of the mind, specifically, past and future times. In , which was released in 1986, the narration opens with the statement, "It is the year 2005." In 1986, that statement was futuristic. During the year 2005, that reference to the year 2005 was factual. Now, The Transformers: The Movie is retro-futuristic. The number 2005 did not change, but the object of the mind that it represents did change.
Deliberate invention also may reference an object of the mind. The intentional invention of fiction for the purpose of deception is usually referred to as lie, in contrast to invention for entertainment or art. Invention is also often applied to problem solving. In this sense the physical invention of materials is associated with the mind invention of fictions.
Convenient fictions also occur in science.
This raises questions, in the debate between scientific realism and instrumentalism about the status of current posits, such as and .
The situation is further complicated by the existence in scientific practice of entities which are explicitly held not to be real, but which nonetheless serve a purpose—convenient fictions. Examples include field line, centers of gravity, and in semiconductor theory.
In their respective the Necronomicon, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and the Red Book of Westmarch are realities, but only because they are referred to as real. Authors use this technique to invite readers to roleplaying or to make-believe that their imaginary world is real. In the sense that the stories that quote these books are true, the quoted books exist; in the sense that the stories are fiction, the quoted books do not exist.
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