AW: DCML Digest Issue 48

[Cord Wiljes]

Don Rosa wrote:
> If I wanted to get mired in this weird discussion, I'd point
> out that, by the above logic that Donald can't have a hat or
> an uncle or a head because he's fictional, it follows that he
> can't really even have the name "Donald" since he doesn't exist.
> In fact, he can't even "have", period, since there's nothing there
> to be "having" if he isn't there, eh?

I bwlieve there is quite a different between "having a hat" and "having
a name".
To have a hat is a physical, existing, intersubjective and measurable
property. A name on the other hand is just attributed to an object and
is not a
measurable property. For example I could introduce you to my
brother and you could measure his height, see the color of his hair and
whether he wears a hat or not. But you have no way to "measure" his
name.
So fictional characters cannot have real hats, but they have 'real'
names
just like real objects have - because names are not real at all. Names
are
symbols representing objects, so they are always fictional.

> And I have no idea where this is going.

I would answer: Deep into 2.600 years of western philosophy :-)

Cord