Modal fictionalism

Modal fictionalism is kind of like playing pretend. When you play pretend, you imagine that things are a certain way even if they aren't really that way in real life. For example, you might pretend to be a superhero and imagine that you can fly or have super strength, even though you know that you really can't do those things.

Similarly, modal fictionalism is a way of thinking about things that aren't real, like imaginary worlds or situations, as if they are real in a pretend or fictional sense. It's called "modal" because it deals with different ways things could be - different "modes" or "possibilities."

For example, let's say you're watching a movie about time travel. In the movie, the character goes back in time and changes something that causes a bunch of things to happen differently in the future. Modal fictionalism would say that you can imagine that those things could have really happened that way, even though in reality, time travel isn't possible.

So, modal fictionalism is a way of thinking about things as if they are real possibilities, even if we know that they aren't really possible in the real world. It's kind of like a game of make-believe, but it can help us understand the different ways things could be in theory.