@fast,
fast;142971 wrote:What about the airplane? Are you imagining that your friend is riding a real airplane or an imaginary one? I would hope the former.
It could be Southwest Flt #35 to S.F. , so I would be imagining a real plane. Or I could imagine him riding in an imaginary one.
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But, you're imagining a real coyote as if it could do such things. That's the magic of having an imagination!
You can imagine real coyotes and you can imagine imaginary coyotes.
You can imagine a real coyote doing imaginary things or doing real things.
You can imainge an imaginary coyote doing imaginary things or doing real things.
Wile E. Coyote has never been and never will be a real coyote. You still have not given me a reason for thinking he is real. And your insistence that he is real is quite odd in light of the fact that you also insist he does not exist.
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When little Johnny runs around the front yard with arms spread wide imagining that he's flying an airplane, then yes, one might say to the neighbor that he's flying in his imaginary airplane (not that he actually is, of course), but little Johnny is not imagining that he's flying an imaginary airplane (what fun would that be?); he's imagining (pretending) that he's flying a real airplane.
So what? I've already pointed out that we can imagine real things. This doesn't entail that we cannot imagine imaginary things.
Why do you think we call something imaginary? It can't be due to the mere fact that we imagine it. After all I can imagine my real friend and he would be quite offended if you said he was an imaginary being.
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I don't think your question asks what you think it does. You have already stated that you believe "Wile E. Coyote" does not refer to a real creature, yet because I believe it does, my answer to your question isn't going to be understood so long as you continue to insist that the referent of term successfully refers. Again, I think it's a referring term that fails to refer, not a referring term that succeeds in referring. And none of that should be confused with a non-referring term.
You've given no reason for your claim that' Wile E. Coyote' refers to a real coyote. The creator who thought up the name 'Wile E. Coyote' gave it to an imaginary creature.
The only sense I can make of you position is that you think all imaginary beings are real beings that don't exist. Is that correct?
I've asked you several times already what you think an imaginary being is. Maybe it is time you answered that question.