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A Critical Introduction to Scientific Realism, by Paul Dicken

essential reading for anyone interested in either the metaphysics of time or of fiction. The book is split into four parts, along with an introduction and first chapter outlining the authors’ metaphysical presuppositions. The first chapter is likely to be the most controversial. Here, the authors suggest that ‘[w]hat makes a fiction true is its fictional world: the extant possible world it describes’ [16]. Moreover, they ‘take possible worlds to be real in the sense of being concrete things’ [16]. Unlike David Lewis (who famously argues for a similar metaphysical view), the authors believe that fictions describe a unique possible world. Readers are likely to respond initially with incredulous stares, but will be rewarded if they read on, as the authors demonstrate how fruitful such a hypothesis can be. Part I addresses puzzles about the fictional past, present, and future. It begins by providing an excellent survey of philosophical theories of time and tense. It then goes on to consider whether fictional time series form A-series or B-series, and what can be said (if anything) about the fictional present and the fictional future. Part II considers attempts to represent various temporal structures in fiction. Each chapter considers a different apparent structure: chapter 5 looks at branching time; chapter 6 examines pausing and rewinding time; chapter 7 discusses recurring time; and chapter 8 considers time travel. The authors argue persuasively that a proper resolution of the puzzles associated with each kind of case requires us to distinguish carefully between features of a fictional world and features of how those worlds are represented. Part III discusses questions about the identity of characters across individual fictions, series, and adaptations. It also considers whether fictional truths can change over time and what it takes for a fiction to be set in an actual time period. Part IV considers puzzles about the apparent incompleteness and apparent impossibility of some fictions, and considers objections to the authors’ proposal that fictions describe a complete possible world. This section introduces an important and illuminating distinction between what is true in fiction and what it takes to be true to a story.