Abstract Thirteen essays, five not previously published, on the arts. These are philosophical essays, mostly concerned with the ways in which theories about mind and language can contribute to our understanding of art. Some explore the challenges posed by art to the empirical sciences of mind – linguistics and pragmatics, psychology and anthropology. Particular problems confronted include: the nature of literary works, genres, and fictional characters; whether there is coherent and useful concept of documentary; whether fiction can tell us anything interesting about time; what pragmatics tells us about interpretation; the prospects for cognitive film theory; the role of empathy in our engagement with fiction; the role of the unreliable narrator; the relations between children's pretend play and their mind reading skills; how we should decide whether animals engage in pretence; what biological and cultural evolution can tell us about the development of art.
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