Possible worlds: What they are good for and what they are
| Abstract | This thesis examines the alethic modal concepts of possibility and necessity. It is argued that one cannot do justice to all our modal talk without possible worlds, i.e., complete ways that a cosmos might have been. I argue that not all of the proposed applications of possible worlds succeed but enough remain to give one good theoretical reason to posit them. The two central problems now are: (1) What feature of reality makes correct alethic modal claims true and (2) What are possible worlds? | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,672 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Only published papers are available at libraries |
Similar books and articlesDominic Gregory (2006). Functionalism About Possible Worlds. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 84 (1):95 – 115.
Takashi Yagisawa (2010). Worlds and Individuals, Possible and Otherwise. Oxford University Press.
Edward N. Zalta (1997). A Classically-Based Theory of Impossible Worlds. Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 38 (4):640-660.
Charles S. Chihara (1998). The Worlds of Possibility: Modal Realism and the Semantics of Modal Logic. Oxford University Press.
Alexander R. Pruss (2001). The Cardinality Objection to David Lewis's Modal Realism. Philosophical Studies 104 (2):169-178.
John Divers & Joseph Melia (2002). The Analytic Limit of Genuine Modal Realism. Mind 111 (441):15-36.
Charles G. Morgan (1973). Systems of Modal Logic for Impossible Worlds. Inquiry 16 (1-4):280 – 289.
Daniel Nolan, Modal Fictionalism. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Louis deRosset (2009). Possible Worlds I: Modal Realism. Philosophy Compass 4 (6):998-1008.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads63 ( #14,692 of 549,060 )Recent downloads (6 months)5 ( #15,099 of 549,060 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
