An Empiricist's Guide to Objective Modality

In Matthew H. Slater & Zanja Yudell (eds.), Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Science: New Essays. New York, NY, USA: Oxford University Press. pp. 109-125 (2017)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In this paper, I defend an empiricist account of modality that keeps a substantive account of modal commitment, but throws out the metaphysics. I suggest that if we pair a deflationary attitude toward representation with a substantive account of how scientific models are constructed and put to use, the result is an account that deflates the metaphysics of modal commitment without deflating the content of modal claims.

Categories

Add categories

Keywords

Reprint years

Links

PhilArchive

External links

  • This entry has no external links. Add one.
Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

My notes

Similar books and articles

Constructive Empiricism and the Metaphysics of Modality.Paul Dicken - 2007 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 58 (3):605-612.
Modal primitivism.Jennifer Wang - 2013 - Dissertation, Rutgers University
Modal science.Timothy Williamson - 2016 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 46 (4-5):453-492.
Soames’s Deflationism About Modality.Tuomas E. Tahko - 2013 - Erkenntnis 78 (6):1367-1379.
Modality: metaphysics, logic, and epistemology.Bob Hale & Aviv Hoffmann (eds.) - 2010 - qnew York: Oxford University Press.
Essence and modality.Kit Fine - 1994 - Philosophical Perspectives 8 (Logic and Language):1-16.
Peacocke’s Principle-Based Account of Modality: “Flexibility of Origins” Plus S4.Sonia Roca-Royes - 2006 - Erkenntnis 65 (3):405-426.
Logical Necessity.Ian Rumfitt - 2010 - In Bob Hale & Aviv Hoffmann (eds.), Modality: Metaphysics, Logic, and Epistemology. Oxford University Press.
Truthmakers and Modality.Ross Paul Cameron - 2008 - Synthese 164 (2):261 - 280.
The deep Black sea: Observability and modality afloat.F. A. Muller - 2005 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 56 (1):61-99.
Concrete possible worlds and counterfactual conditionals: Lewis versus Williamson on modal knowledge.Andrea Sauchelli - 2010 - Synthese 176 (3):345-359.
Modal Rationalism and the Objection from the Insolvability of Modal Disagreement.Mihai Rusu - 2016 - Logos and Episteme 7 (2):171-183.
On the Epistemology of Modal Rationalism: the Main Problems and Their Significance.Mihai Rusu - 2015 - Logos and Episteme 6 (1):75-94.
A plea for a modal realist epistemology.Otavio Bueno & Scott A. Shalkowski - 2000 - Acta Analytica 15 (24):175--194.
Modal Empiricism and Knowledge of De Re Possibilities: A Critique of Roca-Royes' Account.Duško Prelević - 2015 - Organon F: Medzinárodný Časopis Pre Analytickú Filozofiu 22 (4):488–498.

Analytics

Added to PP
2017-11-01

Downloads
1,822 (#4,974)

6 months
136 (#23,007)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Jenann Ismael
Columbia University

Citations of this work

Laws of Nature as Constraints.Emily Adlam - 2022 - Foundations of Physics 52 (1):1-41.
The Everett Interpretation: Probability.Simon Saunders - 2022 - In Eleanor Knox & Alastair Wilson (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Physics. London, UK: Routledge.
Is cancer a matter of luck?Anya Plutynski - 2021 - Biology and Philosophy 36 (1):1-28.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Intention.G. E. M. Anscombe - 1957 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Causality: Models, Reasoning and Inference.Judea Pearl - 2000 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
Nature's capacities and their measurement.Nancy Cartwright - 1989 - New York: Oxford University Press.

View all 36 references / Add more references