"Salient Worlds" by Thomas Pavel - Chapter Summary
Pavel, Thomas G. "Salient Worlds." Fictional Worlds . Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1989. 43-72. Print. The chapter “Salient Worlds” is an attempt by Pavel to describe an internal approach to the analysis of fictional worlds. He proposes a distinction between fiction and the unrealized possibility that draws upon reality. Pavel proposes a system where K is the set of all possible worlds, within which G is the real world. Only if a fictional world contains all the same characters it is an alternate world. R is the relationship between G and the other worlds in K. By Leibniz’s logic, if a condition applies to all the worlds it is a necessary truth. If a condition applies in at least one world it is a possible truth. We may define a property by which only some worlds are accessible from G. Characters: A fictional world may contain either characters that did exist or characters that conceivably could have existed in our world. Realism dictates that “the criterion of t...