On the generation of content

This chapter explores the view that the contents of fictions and non-fictions are generated in the same way. It advocates a general principle of content generation which extends the account of fictional truths proposed by David Lewis. It is argued that, in generating the contents of fictions and non-fictions, the same issues arise and they may be dealt with in the same way. The proposal rests on Stalnaker's view that the assumptions shared by the participants in a conversational exchange provide the material out of which propositions are constructed. The idea underlying the account is that the communicative exchange involved in an author's producing a work for an audience, whether the work is fictive or non-fictive, is no different in principle from communicative exchanges in conversations. Differences in content related to fictional vs. non-fictional status are argued to depend on the role that conventions play in generating implicit truths in both fictive and non-fictive works.