Fictional Characters: Represented or Representation?

Do fictional characters exist - that is really exist, not just in fictions - and if so, what are they like? Philosophers appear to disagree over both of these questions. I argue in this talk that much of this disagreement is the result of a confusion of levels, confusing what is represented, with what represents, mixing our representational talk with our metarepresen-tational talk. Once we are clear on this confusion, we have a new perspective on how to address our questions. The question of whether fictional characters exist is akin to whether stone lions exist? 

Lee Walters finished his PhD in 2011 at University College London, he then taught for two years in Oxford, before joining Southampton. Lee works mainly on conditionals (if-then statements); the metaphysics of repeatable artworks such as novels and pieces of music; and is currently writing a book on fictional characters. His has published in the Journal of Philosophical Logic, The Review of Symbolic Logic, and his 'Repeatable Artworks as Created Types' won the British Journal of Aesthetics essay prize in 2012. Before studying philosophy, Lee studied economics and worked for the UK Treasury, and McKinsey & Company.