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Q&A Would employing the use of philosophical ideas in fiction without citing the sources be considered plagiarism?

Ideas are not copyrightable. Having a character follow a philosophy is definitely not a form of plagiarism. Presenting that philosophy as a paraphrase of the original work might be plagiarism, thou...

posted 8y ago by SF.‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:24:44Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/23870
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar SF.‭ · 2019-12-08T05:24:44Z (almost 5 years ago)
_Ideas_ are not copyrightable. Having a character follow a philosophy is definitely not a form of plagiarism. Presenting that philosophy as a paraphrase of the original work _might_ be plagiarism, though dubiously illegal (copyright on most of these works has long expired already anyway.) In most cases, if you just follow the idea but express it in your own way, this just falls under _drawing inspiration_ which is an entirely legal, common and perfectly acceptable practice.

It's still a good form to credit the original author, possibly in an afterword, or similar "paraphernalia." There's definitely no need to add footnotes to the fictional story or follow academic practices of bibliography or such - you're neither violating copyright nor writing a paper that needs to follow academic scrutiny. But giving a credit where it's due is a _good savior-vivre_, not obligatory but welcome.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-07-19T07:06:55Z (over 8 years ago)
Original score: 1