TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. FICTION WITHIN AND BEYOND LITERATURE AND ART ............ 9
1. The Idea of Imagination and Technological Desire
Donald Phillip Verene
(Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, Emory University) .9
2. Practical Intellect and Contemplative Mind in Early Greek Epos
Gerasim Petrinski
(Assoc. Professor Dr., Department of Rhetoric,
University of Sofia St. Kliment Ohridski) .............................................. 20
3. Reality as a Narrative Fiction: Intertwining Perspectives
Valentina Di Cataldo
(PhD Student, Universidad de Alicante)................................................. 38
4. The deadly-factual word of Greek tragedies:
Hölderlin and tragedy's example of fictional reality
Evangelos Kalfopoulos
(Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Sofia St. Kliment Ohridski
and Collaborating Investigator at the Institute of Philosophical Studies
of Coimbra University).......................................................................... 58
5. We Dreamt a Beach and Found a Desert: What It Means
to Live in Post-Situationist Reality
Nataliya Atanasova
(Coordinator, MA and PhD Programs in Philosophy Taught
in English, University of Sofia St. Kliment Ohridski)................................. 70
6. The Subjective Gaze and Fictional Reality:
A Jungian Reading of The Magus
Bianca Foghel, (Dr., West University of Timisoara)................................... 85
7. The Subjective Ground of Differentiation in Kant,
Proust and Mamardashvili: Topology of Fiction
Gigla Gonashvili, PhD
(Independent scholar residing in Germany)........................................... 100

II. LOGIC AND SCIENCE AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF FICTION.. ......113
8. Modal Fictionalism and Self-Reference
Blagovest S. Mollov
(Professor, Dr. Sc., Department of European Studies,
University of Sofia St. Kliment Ohridski) ................................................ 113
9. Lied the Raven, Evermore – Falsehood and Reality in Science,
through Fiction
Riccardo Marzullo
(Graduate Student, University of Turin).................................................. 124
10. After the Fact: Common Sense, Paradoxical Structures,
and the Retroactive Logic of Fictional Reality
Boyan Dafov
(PhD Student, Department of Logic, Ethics, and Aesthetics,
University of Sofia St. Kliment Ohridski) ............................................... 138

III. FICTIONAL REALITY IN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT ............. 155
11. Democracy — a Reality of Fictions
Nikolay Naidenov
(Professor, Dr. Sc., Department of Theory of Politics,
University of Sofia St. Kliment Ohridski) ................................................ 155
12. Projective Ontologizing and Counseling
Vesselin Hristov Dafov
(Professor, Dr. Sc. Department of Philosophy,
University of Sofia St. Kliment Ohridski) ................................................ 171
13. Infinite Circles of Fictionality
Alexander L. Gungov
(Professor, Dr. Sc., Department of Logic, Ethics, and Aesthetics,
University of Sofia St. Kliment Ohridski) ................................................ 191
14. Fictional Reality in Thomas More's Utopia
as the Core of the Utopian Genre
Ulrich Arnswald
(PD, Dr., Department of Philosophy, University of Innsbruck) ................. 200
15. Jean Baudrillard – Democracy Beyond Hyperreal Simulation
Vanessa Freerks
(Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Leadership Ethics in Africa,
University of Fort Hare) ...................................................................... 217
16. The Fiction of Growth: Degrowth as Philosophical
Critique of Economic Reality
Lukasz Chryniewicz
(Doctoral Candidate, PhD Program in Philosophy Taught in English,
University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski”)............................................ 235
17. Specters of Merit: On the Architecture of Fictional
Realities in Late Capitalism
Aleksandar Todorovski
(Doctoral Student, PhD Program in Philosophy Taught in English,
University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski”)............................................ 257

IV. FICTIONAL REALITY: PRO AND CONTRA THE SACRED REALM ........ 279
18. Ashen Worlds: The Poetics of Apocalypse in Climate Fiction
Todor P. Todorov
(Assoc. Professor, Dr., Department of History of Philosophy,
University of Sofia St. Kliment Ohridski) .............................................. 279
19. ‘Fictional Reality’: The Case of Religious Texts
in a Secular Context
John Patrick Giddy
(Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Kwazulu-Natal) ...... 292
20. Myth After Metaphysics in The Birth of Tragedy
Anany Mishra
(Doctoral Candidate, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences,
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay) and P. G. Jung
(Professor of Philosophy, Department of Humanities
and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay) ............... 312

V. CLINICAL PRACTICE AND MEDICAL SCIENCE
CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF FICTION ..................................... 333
21. Lateral Frontoparietal Network (L-FPN) and Midcingulo-insular
Network (M-CIN) Activation in Truth vs. Delusion Discrimination
Processes within Psychopathology
David Tomasi
(Assoc. Professor, University of Vermont / Vermont Academy
of Arts & Sciences / Vermont State Colleges / Champlain College)......... 333
22. Fictional Reality in Addiction
Eleftherios Sarantis
(Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Sofia St. Kliment Ohridski)............. 351
23. Concealed and Explicit Fictions in Biomedical Research:
From Animal Models to In Vitro Systems
Francesco Giorgi
(PhD Student, University of Sofia St. Kliment Ohridski)......................... 364

VI. A PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACH TO HYPERREALITY.................. 381
24. Hyperreality and the Authentic Nuance of the Fake Self
Shervin Mirzaeighazi
(PhD Alumnus, Lund University)........................................................... 381
25. Phenomenology as Philosophy of Mind:
Scientific Theories as Fictional Realities
Alexander Muss
(Senior Lecturer, Department of General Psychology,
Dr., St. Petersburg State University)....................................................... 397
26. Simulacrum as Nichtseyende. Baudrillard and Schelling
on the Effectiveness of What Is Not
Enrico Schiro
(Dr., University of Malta)....................................................................... 405
27. Sincerity After Authenticity: Ethical Life Under
Conditions of Fictional Reality
Taimoor Farouk
(PhD Student, University of Sofia St. Kliment Ohridski)........................... 421

VII. BOOK REVIEW.............................................................................. 439
Werner Bätzing, Homo Destructor. Eine Mensch–Umwelt–Geschichte.
Von der Entstehung des Menschen zur Zerstörung der Welt, 2023,
München C.H. Beck Verlag, 463 pp., €32, ISBN: 9783406806681
Ulrich Arnswald
(PD, Dr., Universität Innsbruck).............................................................. 439

VIII. ANNOUNCEMENTS ....................................................................... 445
Master’s Program in Philosophy Taught in English
at the University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski” ...................................... 445
Doctoral Program in Philosophy Taught in English
at the University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski” ...................................... 448