In this essay I will defend the thesis that money is a fiction. First, I will establish what fiction as make-believe is using Kendall Walton’s account from his Mimesis as Make-Believe (1990). Though Walton’s theory applies specifically to the representational arts, an application of his theory to money is one that demands exploration. Then, I will provide numerous thought experiments to aid us in seeing that the fiction-reality distinction is a difference of degree rather than of kind. Next, I will proceed to map Walton’s account onto money by arguing that money as a prop has specific uses without at the same time existing in any mind-independent way. While money may be composed of physical material, that feature alone does not make it real in any robust sense. Finally, I will show that anyone who has argued that money is real suffers from a prejudice driven by an overwhelming psychological and emotional attachment to money. While many have thought that money is real because it is tangible, I show here that money is no more real than Mickey Mouse or unicorns.
Keywords: money, fictionalism, make-believe, ontology