Fiction
Public Truth System
Philosophy of Fiction
Practice by Topic
Philosophy of Fiction: How stories relate to reality exploring truth in fiction and falsehoods in nonfiction.
How stories relate to reality exploring truth in fiction and falsehoods in nonfiction.
Knowledge in Motion
Recent Tidbits:
Stories, Quotes, and FAQs.
The wisdom builder tidbits that feed the columns, articles, and trainer.
Philosophy of Journalism
Featured Story
Updated This Week
History
Story
1978
The famous Lewis “Truth in Fiction” Paper
by David Lewis
Philosophy of Fiction
David K. Lewis gave modern philosophy a powerful way to think about fiction. A story creates a world of assumptions, and within that world, some claims become true. Sherlock Holmes lived at 221B Baker Street is not true in history, but it is true in the Holmes stories. Fiction feels real partly because the mind enters that structured world and treats its rules seriously.
Featured QUOTE
Updated This Week
Philosophy
Quote
“The historian without his facts is rootless…the facts without their historian are…meaningless.”
- E. H. Carr
- 1961
Philosophy of History
Carr supports the heart of empirical narrative realism: evidence anchors history, but reason shapes the retelling. The facts keep the historian grounded in reality; the historian gives those facts sequence, context, and meaning. Always ask how much confidence each reconstruction deserves.
Featured FAQ
Updated This Week
Philosophy
FAQ
Can authors create fiction beyond our universe?
- No!
- That's why no one can accurately imagine a 5th dimension.
Fiction
Your imagination feels boundless because reality is rich, not because it is absent. Every myth, fantasy, and sci-fi universe you’ve explored was stitched from threads already present in the material world. Our creativity does not transcend reality. It reveals reality through imaginary recombination.
Updated Tidbits
Critical Thinking
Story
The Idea of Ideas
Idea of Ideas
07 Jul 2026
(Updated 6 days ago)
07 Jul 2026
(Updated 6 days ago)
Philosophy
FAQ
Is fiction part of journalism?
Philosophy of Fiction
07 Jul 2026
(Updated 6 days ago)
Philosophy of Fiction
Recombine reality into something new!
Fiction is reality reimagined.
Fictional writing recombines real impressions into imagined stories. It tells stories that purposely depart from reality while remaining built from reality. No story is created fully outside reality; even fiction remains largely aligned with reality.
Deep-Dive Articles
TST Philosophy of Fiction: Imaginative Realism
Fiction is not created from nothing; it is the recombination of real impressions into imagined things.
Irrational Ideas: The Subtypes
When you encounter an irrational idea, first ask whether it is speculative or disproven.
Irrational Ideas: The Subtypes
When you encounter an irrational idea, first ask whether it is speculative or disproven.
Speculative Ideas in Science: Rip-Bang, Bigfoot, and Beyond
Speculation has a real place in science and in your worldview, but speculative ideas are not established truths. They are starting points, possibilities, or failed ...
Spin, Falsehoods, and Lies
Truth matters, but so does being fair about intent. Do not confuse spin, falsehood, and lying. Spin presents the best face. A falsehood is an ...
New Ideas
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Updated Articles
THINK WELL
Paper
Irrational Ideas: The Subtypes
Idea of Ideas
Mon 6 Apr 2026
(3 months ago)
Updated 6 days ago.
TST COLUMN
01 Jul 2026
Philosophy
Paper
TST Philosophy of Fiction: Imaginative Realism
Philosophy of Fiction
Wed 1 Jul 2026
(1 week ago)
Updated 6 days ago.
TST COLUMN
29 Jan 2019
Debut
THINK WELL
Article
Spin, Falsehoods, and Lies
Journalism
Tue 29 Jan 2019
(7 years ago)
Updated 6 days ago.