Fictional characters in philosophy

The history of philosophy is populated by fictional characters inspired by philosophical imagination, who cannot be identified as really existing entities, but play a key role in the development of theories. At times, the fictional status of these characters is itself controversial, and their very existence becomes a philosophical question per se. Yet, through the ways they feel, think, and act, they raise and embody pressing theoretical problems.
From Plato’s cave prisoners and the Stoic sage to Descartes’ evil demon, Condillac’s statue, Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, and Rawls’s individuals behind the veil of ignorance, these figures mark the shifting boundaries of what philosophy can think and say. This book offers a wide-ranging exploration of more than 150 philosophical fictional characters, examining how they operate as heuristic tools and in thought experiments, showing that they can serve to render certain perspectives more perspicuous, to interrogate one or more standpoints (including one’s own), to probe the premises and practical implications of alternative conceptual frameworks, to subject a theoretical position to a decisive test (experimentum crucis), to articulate objections, and to open up new levels of generalization and abstraction.
Transcending traditions and epochs, these figures trace a parallel history of philosophy – one written not only through arguments, but through imagination. They remind us that to philosophize is also to invent: to create images, voices, and imagined scenarios that make thinking itself possible.

Luca Mori is a researcher in the History of Philosophy at the Department of Civilizations and Forms of Knowledge, University of Pisa. He teaches in the Master’s program in Neuroscience, Mindfulness, and Contemplative Practices at the same university. His publications include Gli esercizi di Epitteto. L’arte di rendersi imperturbabili, Edizioni ETS, Pisa 2025; Gli esercizi di Socrate. L’arte di migliorare se stessi, Edizioni ETS, Pisa 2023; Hannah Arendt. Filosofia e politica dopo Auschwitz, Carocci, Roma 2023; Cinetica della psiche. Cura di sé ed esercizi dei filosofi dal mondo antico al XVII secolo, Edizioni ETS, Pisa 2021.