European Journal of Analytic Philosophy 1 (1):21-37 (2005)
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Abstract |
We argue that genuine modal realism can be extended, rather than modified, so as to allow for the possibility of nothing concrete, a possibility we term ‘metaphysical nihilism’. The issue should be important to the genuine modal realist because, not only is metaphysical nihilism itself intuitively plausible, but also it is supported by an argument with pre-theoretically credible premises,
namely, the subtraction argument. Given the soundness of the subtraction argument, we show that there are two ways that the genuine modal realist can accommodate metaphysical nihilism: (i) by allowing for worlds containing only spatiotemporal points and (ii) by allowing for a world containing nothing but the null individual.
On methodological grounds, we argue that the genuine modal realist should reject the former way but embrace the latter way.
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Keywords | modal realism substraction argument metaphysical nihilism |
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References found in this work BETA
New Work for a Theory of Universals.David Lewis - 1983 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 61 (4):343-377.
Against Structural Universals.David K. Lewis - 1986 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 64 (1):25 – 46.
Island Universes and the Analysis of Modality.Phillip Bricker - 2001 - In G. Preyer & F. Siebelt (eds.), Reality and Humean Supervenience: Essays on the Philosophy of David Lewis. Rowman & Littlefield.
View all 16 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
What is the Principle of Recombination?David Efird & Tom Stoneham - 2008 - Dialectica 62 (4):483-494.
Is Metaphysical Nihilism Interesting?David Efird & Tom Stoneham - 2009 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 90 (2):210-231.
Metaphysical Nihilism and Cosmological Arguments: Some Tractarian Comments.Stig Børsen Hansen - 2012 - European Journal of Philosophy 20 (2):223-242.
View all 8 citations / Add more citations
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