Fictionalism

a subjective idealist philosophical concept that regards human cognition as a system of fictions that are justified in practice but that have no theoretical significance. The concept was given its most complete expression by H. Vaihinger. F. Nietzsche’s view of truth as a useful lie and the pragmatic theory of cognition are close to fictionalism. Fictionalism absolutizes the concepts and methods of thinking used in cognition that have no direct analogues in reality, for example the construction of ideal objects, working hypotheses, and several forms of modeling, and on this basis repudiates the theory of reflection. Fictionalism is a logical conclusion to the positivism of the 19th century; it has had a definite impact on present-day types of positivism.