Research in the field of fictional and possible worlds examines the real and its hypothetical counterparts. The interaction between the actual and the fictional is a cause of debate within this field, and includes questions concerning the ontological status of fictional characters and their relation to reality. The following discussion will engage current positions in this debate. These include questions of reference regarding the correlation between fictional characters and actual personalities. Studying the transmedial migration of character properties from fictional worlds into the actual world engages with the possible as dependent on the actual, as well as the influence fiction can have on reality, by demonstrating how individual characters are perceived as packages of properties, some of which we identify and recognize as adaptable to our own behavior. Transmedial migration requires compatibility between different media. Accordingly, it is explained through the direct correspondence of fictional properties to actual properties, and the indirect correspondence of fictional characters to actual people. I am claiming that an interaction can be observed between different media, such as fictional worlds and the actual world, with particular emphasis on the example of fictional characters and their properties. In order to comprehend this we need a robust framework and the model that I am proposing here comprises the essential elements for such a framework. The transmedial migration of character properties from a textual medium, such as a Sherlock Holmes story, into the physical, social medium of the actual world is the action of adapting a fictional character’s package of properties into an actual person’s behavior. The agency of actual people in adapting fictional character properties to their corporal, social actions is what constitutes transmedial migration. This is a specific example of behavioral learning that recognizes certain behavior by the means of a label or trademark that is acquired from a fictional character. It is conceivable that any number of behavioral attributes, such as attitudes or habits, could be scientifically proven to have transmedially migrated by means of experimentation. Nevertheless, culturally and socially, it is only the definite identification of such character properties that substantiates my argument of transmedial migration through adaptation.

La logique contemporaine a connu de nombreux développements au cours de la seconde moitié du siècle dernier. Le plus sensationnel est celui de la logique modale et de sa sémantique des mondes possibles (SMP) dû à Saul Kripke dans les années soixante. Ces dans ce cadre que David Lewis exposera sa sémantique des contrefactuels (SCF). Celle-ci constitue une véritable excroissance de l’architecture kripkéenne. Mais sur quoi finalement repose l’architecture kripkéenne elle-même ? Il semble bien que la réponse soit celle d’une ontologie raffinée ultimement basée sur la notion de mondes possible. Ce mémoire comporte quatre objectifs. Dans un premier temps, nous allons étudier ce qui distingue les contrefactuels des autres conditionnels et faire un survol historique de la littérature concernant les contrefactuels et leur application dans différent champs du savoir comme la philosophie des sciences et l’informatique. Dans un deuxième temps, nous ferons un exposé systématique de la théorie de Lewis telle qu’elle est exposée dans son ouvrage Counterfactuals. Finalement, nous allons explorer la fondation métaphysique des mondes possible de David Lewis dans son conception de Réalisme Modal. / Modern logic since the end of the Second World War has undergone many developments. Two of the most interesting of these are the Kripkian Possible World Semantics and Lewis’ system of Counterfactuals. The first was developed by Saul Kripke in the 1960s and the second was developed by David Lewis in the 1970s. In some senses we can say that Lewis’ system of counterfactuals or Counter Factual Semantics (CFS) is built on top of the architecture which Kripke created with his Possible Worlds Semantics (PWS). But, what is the Kripkian Possible World Semantics itself built on? The answer it seems is very finely tuned ontology founded on the notion of possible worlds. This paper will attempt to do the following. First, attempt to draw a distinction between on the one hand conditionals and the other counterfactuals and at the same time attempt to look at some of the historical literature surrounding counterfactuals and their application in various fields like the philosophy of science. Second, recapitulate Lewis’ system of counterfactual semantics as developed primarily in Lewis’ book Counterfactuals. Finally this paper will attempt to explore the metaphysical foundations of the possible worlds account argued for by David Lewis in his conception of Modal Realism.

Robert Adams' definition of a possible world is paradoxical according to Selmer Bringsjord, Patrick Grim and, more recently, Cristopher Menzel. The proofs given by Bringsjord and Grim relied crucially on the Powerset Axiom; Christoper Menzel showed that, while this continued tobe the case, there was still hope for Adams' definition, but Menzel he undustedan old russellian paradox in order to prove that we could obtain the same paradoxical consequences without appealing to any other set theory than the Axiomof Separation. Nevertheless, Menzel's result only showed that there was no actualworld. In this paper we try to generalize Russell's paradox to arbitrary possible worlds without introducing an irreducible modal component in the discussion. / La definición de un mundo posible” de Robert Adams es paradójica, de acuerdo con Selmer Bringsjord, Patrick Grim y Cristopher Menzel. Las pruebas de Bringsjord y Grim utilizaban el axioma del Conjunto Potencia; Cristopher Menzel objetó que, mientras este fuese el caso, todavía existía esperanza para la definición de Adams, pero Menzel desempolvó una vieja paradoja de Russell para demostrar que podíamos obtener las mismas conclusiones sin apelar a otra teoría de conjuntos que el Axioma de Separación. Sin embargo, el resultado de Menzel mostraba solo que no existía el mundo actual. En este trabajo intentamos generalizar la paradoja de Russell a mundos posibles arbitrarios sin necesidad de introducir conceptos modales en la discusión.

The aim of this paper is to provide a formulation of the modal cosmological argument for the existence of a necessary entity, that is more resistant to criticism than those hitherto formulated. The conclusion is that there exists a necessary entity powerful enough to causally sustain the world. It has only two substantial premises, which are very innocuous. The argument requires no assumption that contingent entities must have a cause, or even that they normally have a cause, or the impossibility of infinite regresses, or any particular theory of time, and works irrespectively of which modal framework is accepted.

Scholars of Jewish literature consistently ask what it means to "write Jewishly". Strangers in a Strange Land posits that eight short works of Jewish fiction by authors in different times and places construct a consistent narrative realm of possibilities. I employ Possible Worlds literary theory to argue for this hypothesis. I argue that the narrative realm of these eight short stories is defined by liminal zones and liminal figures, marked most intensely by an implied porousness in the veil between the natural and the supernatural. My argument is based on a close analysis of major liminal themes: transit and wandering; dreamstates and visions; darkness and night; (un)death; and others. I contextualize these themes in two ways: first, by connecting them to the genres of Fantastic and Paranormal fiction in non-Jewish Western literature; and second, by bringing earlier Jewish tales into the discussion, illustrating that they have been and remain present in Jewish writing, in some cases as distant temporally as the Israelite literature of the Hebrew Bible. This panorama of ambiguous zones and characters unable to find steady footing would contribute to discussions of the nature of Jewish literature and its ability to create a virtual literary Home for a population that has been dispersed across the continents.

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[pt] Este trabalho investiga a história que Leibniz acrescenta à narrativa do humanista italiano Laurent Valla, transformando-a de uma anedota a respeito da liberdade humana diante presciência e vontade divinas em um estudo sobre a natureza da criação. Na história, os infinitos mundos possíveis são apresentados a Teodoro, em sonho, por Palas Atena, filha de Júpiter. O que ele vê pelos cômodos do palácio são infinitas histórias alternativas ao destino infeliz de Sexto Tarquínio, filho do último dos reis da monarquia romana. Esses mundos possíveis estão organizados em ordem decrescente de perfeição, sendo que o mais rico em variedade se encontra no alto da pirâmide, que é a forma geométrica a que Leibniz identifica o lugar em que Deus delibera sobre o melhor. Este trabalho percorre a estrutura da pirâmide para compreender o que Teodoro vê em cada cômodo e o que garante a própria divisória entre os cômodos. Nesse trajeto, verifica-se que um dos cálculos envolvidos na arquitetura da pirâmide é a dissemelhança entre a parte e o todo no melhor dos mundos. Sexto participa da variedade do mundo existente com seu infortúnio. No interior de um dos cômodos, Teodoro é introduzido aos problemas da análise infinita ao folhear o livro dos destinos. Por fim, este trabalho mostra que a natureza distópica da pirâmide não se restringe às histórias alternativas que Teodoro encontra em cada cômodo, mas há também outros mundos no interior do próprio mundo existente. O mundo mais perfeito se distingue por conter mais variedade que os demais, o que faz dele um mundo denso. É possível transitar pela densidade desse mundo através das distopias, ora entendidas como uma imitação da estrutura da lei do contínuo, ora consideradas como um suporte corporal que permite percorrer, alternadamente, os mundos fenomênicos. / [en] This thesis investigates the story that Leibniz adds to the narrative of the Italian humanist Laurent Valla, transforming it from an anecdote about human freedom in face of divine foreknowledge and will in a study about the nature of creation. In the story, the infinite possible worlds are presented to Theodorus in a dream by Pallas Athena, daughter of Jupiter. What he sees through the rooms of the palace are infinite alternative stories to the unfortunate fate of Sextus Tarquinius, son of the last king of the Roman monarchy. These possible worlds are organized in descending order of perfection, so that the richest in variety is at the top of the pyramid, which is the geometric form to which Leibniz identifies the place where God deliberates on the best. This work traverses the structure of the pyramid to understand what Theodore sees in each room and what ensures the very partition between the rooms. On this route, it is verified that one of the calculations involved in the architecture of the pyramid is the dissimilarity between the part and the whole in the best of the worlds. Sextus participates in the variety of the existing world with its misfortune. Inside one of the rooms, Theodorus is introduced to the problems of infinite analysis by leafing through the book of fates. Finally, this work shows that the dystopic nature of the pyramid is not restricted to the alternative stories that Theodorus finds in each room, but there are also other worlds within the existing world itself. The most perfect world stands out for containing more variety than the others, which makes it a dense world. It is possible to transit through the density of this world through dystopias, understood firstly as an imitation of the structure of the law of the continuum and, secondly, as a bodily support that allows one to traverse, alternately, the phenomenal worlds.

The representation of Chancery court in Charles Dickens’ Bleak House (1852-3) emphasises the inaccessibility of this institution to members of the laity. Dickens’ critique of Chancery chimes with Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological description of law as a formalistic social field defined by practices of exclusion. Dickens’ Chancery is however further inaccessible since it departs from Dickens’ laypeople’s horizons of expectation as a bureaucratic organisation characterised by its structural dispersion and the generation of great quantities of writing. This thesis therefore scrutinises Dickens’ treatment of Chancery in light of media-theoretical and geocritical, as well as sociological, frameworks and perspectives. This essay demonstrates that Dickens’ account of the institution of Chancery as conceptually inaccessible amounts to what I term a non-world heuristic. I contend that Dickens’ take on law anticipates what Fredric Jameson famously theorises as the dizzying “global world system” of late capitalism; the non-world heuristic of Bleak House—which combats disorientation in the social domain of law—may thus be understood as an early example of what Jameson terms an “aesthetic of cognitive mapping.” The non-world heuristic, this thesis proposes, likely has a role to play also in fictional attempts to cognitively map the global world system. I theorise the non-world heuristic in light of the discourse on accessibility in possible-worlds theory and the Kantian sublime, finding that the sublime non-world of Chancery is made accessible as inaccessible and that this dynamic is integral to Dickens’ aesthetic both as a maker of cognitive maps and as a realist novelist.

This thesis is a reflection from the cultural studies point of view of my personal volunteer experience in Ukraine. Its focus is to present practical use of anthropology or cultural studies knowledge in such field as volunteer or humanitarian work in a different culture. It suggests use of photography as a method of cognition of the environment. It presents an auto- photographic method as an alternative to a research using classical methods of visual anthropology. This thesis also presents two sets of photographs taken by children in a local orphanage which record their possible worlds. Key words: volunteering, auto-photography, visual anthropology, qualitative research, possible worlds

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