A Problem for Fictionalism about Possible Worlds

Analysis 53 (2):71 - 81 (1993)
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Abstract

Fictionalism about possible worlds is the view that talk about worlds in the analysis of modality is to be construed as ontologically innocent discourse about the content of a fiction. Versions of the view have been defended by D M Armstrong (in "A Combinatorial Theory of Possibility") and by myself (in "Modal Fictionalism', "Mind" 99, July 1990). The present note argues that fictionalist accounts of modality (both Armstrong's version and my own) fail to serve the fictionalists ontological purposes because they imply that as a matter of necessity there exist many worlds

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Gideon Rosen
Princeton University

Citations of this work

Go figure: A path through fictionalism.Stephen Yablo - 2001 - Midwest Studies in Philosophy 25 (1):72–102.
Universals.Chad Carmichael - 2010 - Philosophical Studies 150 (3):373-389.
Possible Worlds.Christopher Menzel - 2013 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Modal Fictionalism Fixed.Gideon Rosen - 1995 - Analysis 55 (2):67-73.

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References found in this work

Classes are states of affairs.D. M. Armstrong - 1991 - Mind 100 (2):189-200.

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