Fiction

Public Truth System

Philosophy of Fiction

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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

Tidbits:

Stories, Quotes, and FAQs.

The wisdom builder tidbits that feed the columns, articles, and trainer.

Philosophy of Journalism

Featured Story

Idea of Ideas

After you categorize an idea as empirically true, rationally true, or currently false, you can then start to calibrate your belief in it. Even ideas in the irrational category may deserve some degree of belief, depending on the evidence, context, and the limits of what is currently known.

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?

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

History

Story

The famous Lewis “Truth in Fiction” Paper

Philosophy of Fiction

07 Jul 2026

(Updated 3 days ago)

Critical Thinking

Quote

“Truth is stranger than fiction…[which] is obliged to stick to possibilities;”

Mark Twain
1897

Fiction

07 Jul 2026

(Updated 3 days ago)

Philosophy

FAQ

Is fiction part of journalism?

Philosophy of Fiction

07 Jul 2026

(Updated 3 days ago)

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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

Epistemology Idea of Ideas Philosophy of Fiction

TST Philosophy of Fiction: Imaginative Realism

Michael Alan Prestwood July 1, 2026

Fiction is not created from nothing; it is the recombination of real impressions into imagined things.

Idea of Ideas Philosophy of Fiction THINK WELL

Irrational Ideas: The Subtypes

Michael Alan Prestwood April 6, 2026

When you encounter an irrational idea, first ask whether it is speculative or disproven.

Idea of Ideas

Irrational Ideas: The Subtypes

April 6, 2026

When you encounter an irrational idea, first ask whether it is speculative or disproven.

Philosophy of Fiction

Speculative Ideas in Science: Rip-Bang, Bigfoot, and Beyond

June 5, 2024

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 ...