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Modal Realism and the Possibility of Island Universes: Why There are no Possible Worlds

  • Jiri Benovsky EMAIL logo
From the journal Metaphysica

Abstract

In this article, I defend Lewisian modal realism against objections arising from the possibility of ‘Island Universes’ and other similar cases. The problem comes from Lewis’ claim that possible worlds are spatio-temporally isolated. I suggest a modification of Lewisian modal realism in order to avoid this family of objections. This modification may sound quite radical since it amounts to abandoning the very notion of a possible world, but as radical as it may sound it in fact remains well in the spirit of Lewis’ original view.


Corresponding author: Jiri Benovsky, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland, E-mail:

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Published Online: 2020-11-03
Published in Print: 2021-04-27

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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