[whatshisface]

Zeus and Sherlock Holmes could both be argued to have had transitive causal influences upon us - so in order to make that statement make sense there must be some other implied constraints on what is considered to "exist."

[simonh]

The fictional character Sherlock Holmes certainly exists.

[jamesrcole]

It all depends on what you mean when you say "The fictional character Sherlock Holmes". I believe that thoughts, memories and knowledge "about Sherlock Holmes" exist and are physical details, as are Sherlock Holmes books, etc. And that there's no other reality to "Sherlock Holmes", above and beyond these things.

But really, this discussion is too large to satisfactorily deal with here.

[lisper]

Try this then:

http://blog.rongarret.info/2015/02/31-flavors-of-ontology.ht...

[jamesrcole]

> Zeus and Sherlock Holmes could both be argued to have had transitive causal influences upon us

There's some philosophers who'd argue that, but I think the arguments are pretty weak.