The Identity of Ficta and the Place of Authors

This paper presents a dilemma about the relationships between the identity conditions of fictional entities and their authors – namely, whether features that involve the authors of fictional entities may partake in the identity conditions of these entities or not. Both horns of the dilemma are troublesome. On the negative horn, denying that the identity of fictional entities depends on their authors for their identity conditions makes it impossible to account for the distinctness or identity of indiscernible or inconsistent fictional entities. On the affirmative horn, author-dependent identity conditions face three difficulties: the Problems of Necessary Authors, Circularity, and Redundancy. I propose a solution that consists in holding that the features that involve authors may fix, or contribute to fixing, the identity conditions of fictional entities without partaking in those conditions. This solution avoids the difficulties of both horns. Finally, to account for indiscernible yet distinct fictional entities, I introduce primitively individuated and individuating entities, or ‘traces’.