Deciding to deceive.

René Magritte

Philosophers still worry about the paradox of fiction: how can we care about someone who doesn’t exist?

The response to this question is that it’s not a paradox. The existence of the character is entirely separate from our feelings of identification. We willingly believe in the story as long as it rings true. We believe in many things because we like the sound of them. We can believe in other people when we aren’t involved in…