Theatrical fictional worlds, counterfactuals, and scientific thought experiments

It is commonly accepted that theatrical fictional worlds could serve as a potent tool for increasing man's understanding of his own world. This research connects insights that have been developed in such diverse areas of thought as semiotics of theater and drama, philosophical logic and ontology, epistemology, and philosophy of science, so as to establish a model that suggests an explication of this epistemic effect and thereby a new observation of the theatrical enterprise. The theory advanced in this study states that fictional worlds are a kind of thought experiment through which spectators' theories about their own world may be tested, amended or even invented.