The Symposium was held as part of the bicentenary celebration of the Swedish Academy in August 1986. Thirty-six contributions approach the theme from the fields of philosophy, linguistics, literature and art, and natural science. The discussion is of the fundamental questions of whether a possible world created by art can be an instrument for understanding the actual world and, conversely whether scientific theories and models can be regarded as fictional in some way. No subject index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR