Fictionalism

Fictionalism is a big word that means pretending something is real even though it's actually just made up. Let's say you're playing a game of make-believe with your friends, and you're pretending to be pirates. You might say things like "Avast, mateys! Hoist the Jolly Roger!" even though pirates might not actually exist anymore.

That's kind of like what fictionalism is. People who believe in fictionalism believe that things like numbers, unicorns, or Harry Potter are all made up, but they can still be useful to talk about and pretend they're real. It's like playing make-believe, but with grown-up topics.

So, even though unicorns don't actually exist, we can still talk about them and write stories about them. And even though numbers might not be real things you can touch or see, they're still useful for things like math and science. Fictionalism helps us to understand and imagine things that might not actually be real.