Results for 'possible worlds'

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  1. Possible-worlds semantics for modal notions conceived as predicates.Volker Halbach, Hannes Leitgeb & Philip Welch - 2003 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 32 (2):179-223.
    If □ is conceived as an operator, i.e., an expression that gives applied to a formula another formula, the expressive power of the language is severely restricted when compared to a language where □ is conceived as a predicate, i.e., an expression that yields a formula if it is applied to a term. This consideration favours the predicate approach. The predicate view, however, is threatened mainly by two problems: Some obvious predicate systems are inconsistent, and possible-worlds semantics for (...)
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    Possible Worlds Semantics for Partial Meet Multiple Contraction.Maurício D. L. Reis & Eduardo Fermé - 2012 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 41 (1):7-28.
    In the logic of theory change, the standard model is AGM, proposed by Alchourrón et al. (J Symb Log 50:510–530, 1985 ). This paper focuses on the extension of AGM that accounts for contractions of a theory by a set of sentences instead of only by a single sentence. Hansson (Theoria 55:114–132, 1989 ), Fuhrmann and Hansson (J Logic Lang Inf 3:39–74, 1994 ) generalized Partial Meet Contraction to the case of contractions by (possibly non-singleton) sets of sentences. In this (...)
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  3. Possible World Semantics and the Complex Mechanism of Reference Fixing.Alik Pelman - 2017 - Acta Analytica 32 (4):385-396.
    Possible world semantics considers not only what an expression actually refers to but also what it might have referred to in counterfactual circumstances. This has proven exceptionally useful both inside and outside philosophy. The way this is achieved is by using intensions. An intension of an expression is a function that assigns to each possible world the reference of the expression in that world. However, the specific intension of terms has been subject to frequent disputes. How is one (...)
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  4. Possible worlds and situations.Robert Stalnaker - 1986 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 15 (1):109 - 123.
    ... 112 ROBERT STALNAKER example Alvin Plantinga and Robert Adams) define possible worlds in terms of states of affairs or propositions ; others (for example Max Cresswell) use a strategy quite similar to that of situation semantics, defining possible worlds as constructs out of ..
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  5. Possible Worlds: A Neo-Fregean Alternative.Sandy Berkovski - 2011 - Axiomathes 21 (4):531-551.
    I outline a neo-Fregean strategy in the debate on the existence of possible worlds. The criterion of identity and the criterion of application are formulated. Special attention is paid to the fact that speakers do not possess proper names for worlds. A broadly Quinean solution is proposed in response to this difficulty.
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  6. Possible worlds semantics for belief sentences.Joe Lau - 1997 - In Logica Yearbook.
    This paper is about possible worlds semantics for propositional attitude sentences. In particular I shall focus on belief reports in English such as "Lusina believes that tofu is nutritious." It is well-known that possible worlds semantics for such reports suffers from the so-called _problem of equivalence_ . In this paper I shall examine some attempts to deal with this problem and argue that they are unsatisfactory.
     
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    Possible Worlds Semantics: A Research Program That Cannot Fail?Johan van Benthem - 1984 - Studia Logica 43 (4):379-393.
    Providing a possible worlds semantics for a logic involves choosing a class of possible worlds models, and setting up a truth definition connecting formulas of the logic with statements about these models. This scheme is so flexible that a danger arises: perhaps, any logic whatsoever can be modelled in this way. Thus, the enterprise would lose its essential 'tension'. Fortunately, it may be shown that the so-called 'incompleteness-examples' from modal logic resist possible worlds modelling, (...)
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    Propositions, Possible Worlds, and Recursion.Andrzej Wiśniewski - 2011 - Logic and Logical Philosophy 20 (1-2):73-79.
    The issue of reduction of propositions to sets of possible worlds is addressed. It is shown that, under some natural assumptions, there always exist recursive propositions, i.e. decidable sets of possible worlds, which are not assigned to any sentence of a language. Some consequences of this result are discussed.
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  9. (1 other version)Pleonastic possible worlds.Alexander Steinberg - 2013 - Philosophical Studies 164 (3):767-789.
    The role of possible worlds in philosophy is hard to overestimate. Nevertheless, their nature and existence is very controversial. This is particularly serious, since their standard applications depend on there being sufficiently many of them. The paper develops an account of possible worlds on which it is particularly easy to believe in their existence: an account of possible worlds as pleonastic entities. Pleonastic entities are entities whose existence can be validly inferred from statements that (...)
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  10. Ruth Ronen.Are Fictional Worlds Possible - 1996 - In Calin Andrei Mihailescu & Walid Hamarneh (eds.), Fiction updated: theories of fictionality, narratology, and poetics. Buffalo: University of Toronto Press.
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  11.  58
    Possible worlds in “The Craft of Formal Logic”.Aneta Markoska-Cubrinovska - 2016 - Synthese 193 (11).
    “The Craft of Formal Logic” is Arthur Prior’s unpublished textbook, written in 1950–51, in which he developed a theory of modality as quantification over possible worlds-like objects. This theory predates most of the prominent pioneering texts in possible worlds semantics and anticipates the significance of its basic concept in modal logic. Prior explicitly defines modal operators as quantifiers of ‘entities’ with modal character. Although he talks about these ‘entities’ only informally, and hesitates how to name them, (...)
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  12. Possible worlds semantics: A research program that cannot fail?Johan Benthem - 1984 - Studia Logica 43 (4):379 - 393.
    Providing a possible worlds semantics for a logic involves choosing a class of possible worlds models, and setting up a truth definition connecting formulas of the logic with statements about these models. This scheme is so flexible that a danger arises: perhaps, any (reasonable) logic whatsoever can be modelled in this way. Thus, the enterprise would lose its essential tension. Fortunately, it may be shown that the so-called incompleteness-examples from modal logic resist possible worlds (...)
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  13.  62
    Possible world semantics for first-order logic of proofs.Melvin Fitting - 2014 - Annals of Pure and Applied Logic 165 (1):225-240.
    In the tech report Artemov and Yavorskaya [4] an elegant formulation of the first-order logic of proofs was given, FOLP. This logic plays a fundamental role in providing an arithmetic semantics for first-order intuitionistic logic, as was shown. In particular, the tech report proved an arithmetic completeness theorem, and a realization theorem for FOLP. In this paper we provide a possible-world semantics for FOLP, based on the propositional semantics of Fitting [5]. We also give an Mkrtychev semantics. Motivation and (...)
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  14. Possible Worlds of History.Ilkka Lähteenmäki - 2018 - Journal of the Philosophy of History 12 (1):164-182.
    _ Source: _Page Count 19 The theory of possible worlds has been minimally employed in the field of theory and philosophy of history, even though it has found a place as a tool in other areas of philosophy. Discussion has mostly focused on arguments concerning counterfactual history’s status as either useful or harmful. The theory of possible worlds can, however be used also to analyze historical writing. The concept of textual possible worlds offers an (...)
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    Computing possible worlds in the history of modern astronomy.Osvaldo Pessoa Jr, Rafaela Gesing, Mariana Jó de Souza & Daniel Carlos de Melo Marcílio - 2016 - Principia: An International Journal of Epistemology 20 (1):117-126.
    As part of an ongoing study of causal models in the history of science, a counterfactual scenario in the history of modern astronomy is explored with the aid of computer simulations. After the definition of “linking advance”, a possible world involving technological antecedence is described, branching out in 1510, in which the telescope is invented 70 years before its actual construction, at the time in which Fracastoro actually built the first prototelescope. By using the principle of the closest (...) world, we estimate that in this scenario the discovery of the elliptical orbit of Mars would by anticipated by only 28 years. The second part of the paper involves an estimate of the probability of the previous scenario, guided by the principle that the actual world is the mean and using computer simulations to create possible worlds in which the time spans between advances is varied according to a gamma distribution function. Taking into account the importance of the use of the diaphragm for the invention of the telescope, the probability that the telescope were built by 1538 for a branching time at 1510 is found to be smaller than 1%. The work shows that one of the important features of computational simulations in philosophy of science is to serve as a consistency check for the intuitions and speculations of the philosopher. (shrink)
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  16. Possible-worlds semantics without possible worlds: The agnostic approach.John Divers - 2006 - Mind 115 (458):187-226.
    If a possible-worlds semantic theory for modal logics is pure, then the assertion of the theory, taken at face-value, can bring no commitment to the existence of a plurality of possible worlds (genuine or ersatz). But if we consider an applied theory (an application of the pure theory) in which the elements of the models are required to be possible worlds, then assertion of such a theory, taken at face-value, does appear to bring commitment (...)
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  17. Possible worlds I: Modal realism.Louis DeRosset - 2009 - Philosophy Compass 4 (6):998-1008.
    It is difficult to wander far in contemporary metaphysics without bumping into talk of possible worlds. And reference to possible worlds is not confined to metaphysics. It can be found in contemporary epistemology and ethics, and has even made its way into linguistics and decision theory. What are those possible worlds, the entities to which theorists in these disciplines all appeal? This paper sets out and evaluates a leading contemporary theory of possible (...), David Lewis's Modal Realism. I note two competing ambitions for a theory of possible worlds: that it be reductive and user-friendly. I then outline Modal Realism and consider objections to the effect that it cannot satisfy these ambitions. I conclude that there is some reason to believe that Modal Realism is not reductive and overwhelming reason to believe that it is not user-friendly. (shrink)
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  18. Possible Worlds in the Tahafut al-tahafut: Averroes on Plenitude and Possibility.Taneli Kukkonen - 2000 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 38 (3):329-347.
    In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Possible Worlds in the Tahâfut al-tahâfut:Averroes on Plenitude and PossibilityTaneli Kukkonen1.It has become customary to credit John Duns Scotus with having first systematically laid out the basis for treating the modal terms as referring to synchronic alternative states of affairs. This has been viewed as constituting a genuine shift in modal paradigms, as no former model had included the idea of genuine synchronic alternative possibilities. Historians of (...)
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  19. Possible worlds as shifting domains.Takashi Yagisawa - 1992 - Erkenntnis 36 (1):83 - 101.
    Those who object to David Lewis' modal realism express qualms about philosophical respectability of the Lewisian notion of a possible world and its correlate notion of an inhabitant of a possible world. The resulting impression is that these two notions either stand together or fall together. I argue that the Lewisian notion of a possible world is otiose even for a good Lewisian modal realist, and that one can carry out a good Lewisian semantics for modal discourse (...)
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  20. Multidimensional Possible-World Semantics for Conditionals.Richard Bradley - 2012 - Philosophical Review 121 (4):539-571.
    Adams’s Thesis, the claim that the probabilities of indicative conditionals equal the conditional probabilities of their consequents given their antecedents, has proven impossible to accommodate within orthodox possible-world semantics. This essay proposes a modification to the orthodoxy that removes this impossibility. The starting point is a proposal by Jeffrey and Stalnaker that conditionals take semantic values in the unit interval, interpreting these (à la McGee) as their expected truth-values at a world. Their theories imply a false principle, namely, that (...)
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  21. Possible Worlds.Christopher Menzel - 2013 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
    This article includes a basic overview of possible world semantics and a relatively comprehensive overview of three central philosophical conceptions of possible worlds: Concretism (represented chiefly by Lewis), Abstractionism (represented chiefly by Plantinga), and Combinatorialism (represented chiefly by Armstrong).
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  22.  59
    Possible Worlds: A Fashionable Nonsense?Jean-Yves Beziau - 2018 - Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy 55:5-9.
    In this paper we discuss the notion of “possible worlds” contrasting a philosophical idea due to Malebranche with a mathematical concept of modern logic due to Kripke from which many pseudo-philosophical discussions have arisen.
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  23. Possible worlds in the modal interpretation.Meir Hemmo - 1996 - Philosophy of Science 63 (3):337.
    An outline for a modal interpretation in terms of possible worlds is presented. The so-called Schmidt histories are taken to correspond to the physically possible worlds. The decoherence function defined in the histories formulation of quantum theory is taken to prescribe a non-classical probability measure over the set of the possible worlds. This is shown to yield dynamics in the form of transition probabilities for occurrent events in each world. The role of the consistency (...)
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  24. Possible Worlds and the Objective World.Jeffrey Sanford Russell - 2013 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 90 (2):389-422.
    David Lewis holds that a single possible world can provide more than one way things could be. But what are possible worlds good for if they come apart from ways things could be? We can make sense of this if we go in for a metaphysical understanding of what the world is. The world does not include everything that is the case—only the genuine facts. Understood this way, Lewis's “cheap haecceitism” amounts to a kind of metaphysical anti-haecceitism: (...)
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  25. Haecceitism, anti-haecceitism, and possible worlds: A case study.Brad Skow - 2008 - Philosophical Quarterly 58 (230):97-107.
    Possible-worlds talk obscures, rather than clarifies, the debate about haecceitism. In this paper I distinguish haecceitism and anti-haecceitism from other doctrines that sometimes go under those names. Then I defend the claim that there are no non-tendentious definitions of ‘haecceitism’ and ‘anti-haecceitism’ using possible-worlds talk. That is, any definition of ‘haecceitism’ using possible-worlds talk depends, for its correctness, on a substantive theory of the nature of possible worlds. This explains why using (...)-worlds talk when discussing haecceitism causes confusion: if the parties to the discussion presuppose different theories of the nature of possible worlds, then they will mean different things by ‘haecceitism’. (shrink)
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  26. Possible Worlds and Annstrong’s Combinatorialism.Jaegwon Kim - 1986 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 16 (4):595-612.
    At the outset of his instructive and thought-provoking paper, ‘The Nature of Possibility,’ Professor David Armstrong gives a succinct description, in itself almost complete, of his ‘combinatorial theory’ of possibility. He says: ‘Such a view traces the very idea of possibility to the idea of the combinations - allthe combinations which respect certain simple form- of given, actual elements’. We can perhaps start a bit further back than this. In explaining the idea of a ‘possible world,’ some philosophers begin (...)
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  27. Possible Worlds.John Divers - 2002 - Routledge.
    _Possible Worlds_ presents the first up-to-date and comprehensive examination of one of the most important topics in metaphysics. John Divers considers the prevalent philosophical positions, including realism, antirealism and the work of important writers on possible worlds such as David Lewis, evaluating them in detail.
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  28.  15
    The development of possible worlds in an online video game.Yunus Luckinger - 2023 - Semiotica 2023 (252):119-131.
    With the development of technology, video games have become more and more realistic and indistinguishable from the real world. In this regard, this article takes a semiotic approach to create a better understanding of how possible worlds are created in video games, placing them on a continuum, which shows that the development of possible worlds is based on the reality we face in the real world. A video game called Player Unknown’s Battle Grounds is used to (...)
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  29.  29
    Best Possible World Theodicy.Hud Hudson - 2014 - In Justin P. McBrayer & Daniel Howard-Snyder (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to The Problem of Evil. Wiley. pp. 236–250.
    Well‐known arguments for atheism have been grounded on the alleged lack of morally justifying reasons to permit particular moral and natural evils and on the thesis that God would have to create the best possible world. After discussing obstacles to the suggestion that there is a best of all possible worlds, I examine the prospects for responding to these atheistic arguments by exploring the case for our own world's being the best of all possible worlds (...)
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  30. Physical theories and possible worlds.M. J. Cresswell - 1973 - Logique Et Analyse 16 (63):495.
    Formalized physical theories are not, as a rule, stated in intensional languages. Yet in talking about them we often treat them as if they were. We say for instance: 'Consider what would happen if instead of p's being true q were. In such a case r would be likely.' If we say this sort of thing, p, q and r appear to stand for the meanings of sentences of the theory, but meanings in some intensional sense. Now it is very (...)
     
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  31. (1 other version)Concrete possible worlds.Phillip Bricker - 2008 - In Theodore Sider, John P. Hawthorne & Dean W. Zimmerman (eds.), Contemporary debates in metaphysics. Malden, MA: Blackwell. pp. 111--134.
    In this chapter, I survey what I call Lewisian approaches to modality: approaches that analyze modality in terms of concrete possible worlds and their parts. I take the following four theses to be characteristic of Lewisian approaches to modality. (1) There is no primitive modality. (2) There exists a plurality of concrete possible worlds. (3) Actuality is an indexical concept. (4) Modality de re is to be analyzed in terms of counterparts, not transworld identity. After an (...)
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  32. Possible Worlds: What They Are Good for and What They Are.Alexander Robert Pruss - 2001 - Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh
    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: What feature of reality makes correct alethic modal claims true (...)
     
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  33.  67
    Possible World Semantics: Philosophical Foundations.Robert Stalnaker - 2010 - In Alan Berger (ed.), Saul Kripke. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. pp. 100-115.
    Saul Kripke did more than anyone else to bring possible worlds into the contemporary philosophical discourse, first with his more formal work on the model theory for modal logic in the 1960s, and then with his more philosophical lectures on reference and modality, delivered in January 1970, that used the possible worlds apparatus informally to clarify the relations between semantic issues about names and metaphysical issues about individuals and kinds. Possible worlds semantics have been (...)
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  34. Possible World Semantics Meets Metaphysics.Alik Pelman - 2024 - Xlinguae 17 (3) (Special Issue: Phil of Lang):122-134.
    Possible world semantics has been gradually fine-grained over the years. First, simple extensional semantics was fine-grained by relativizing it to worlds considered as counterfactual, thus generating standard possible-world semantics, which was later further fine-grained by relativizing it to worlds considered as actual, thus generating two-dimensional semantics. However, worlds considered as actual were only considered with respect to the empirical facts obtaining in such worlds. This paper shows that no less of an important role is (...)
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  35. Possible Worlds Semantics and Fiction.Diane Proudfoot - 2006 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 35:9-40.
    The canonical version of possible worlds semantics for story prefixes is due to David Lewis. This paper reassesses Lewis's theory and draws attention to some novel problems for his account.
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  36. On Set Theoretic Possible Worlds.Christopher Menzel - 1986 - Analysis 46 (2):68 - 72.
    In his paper "Are There Set Theoretic Possible Worlds?", Selmer Bringsjord argued that the set theoretic definition of possible worlds proffered by, among others, Robert Adams and Alvin Plantinga is incoherent. It is the purpose of this note to evaluate that argument. The upshot: these set theoretic accounts can be preserved, but only by abandoning the power set axiom.
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  37.  29
    Why Possible Worlds Aren't.James W. Felt - 1996 - Review of Metaphysics 50 (1):63 - 77.
    I rest this unusual claim on the ground of a metaphysics that is at odds with the metaphysical viewpoint implied in the theories of possible worlds. I suggest a different and, I think, superior way of conceiving the world, experience, and what we mean by possibility.
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  38. Information, possible worlds and the cooptation of scepticism.Luciano Floridi - 2010 - Synthese 175 (1):63 - 88.
    The article investigates the sceptical challenge from an informationtheoretic perspective. Its main goal is to articulate and defend the view that either informational scepticism is radical, but then it is epistemologically innocuous because redundant; or it is moderate, but then epistemologically beneficial because useful. In order to pursue this cooptation strategy, the article is divided into seven sections. Section 1 sets up the problem. Section 2 introduces Borei numbers as a convenient way to refer uniformly to (the data that individuate) (...)
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  39. Possible worlds: an introduction to logic and its philosophy.Raymond Bradley - 1979 - Oxford: Blackwell. Edited by Norman Swartz.
    object an item which does not have a position in space and time but which exists. (Philosophers have nominated such things as numbers, sets, and propositions to this category. The need to posit such entities has been discussed and disputed for at least 2400 years.).
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  40.  58
    On Possible Worlds with Modal Parts: A Semantics for Modal Interaction.Neil Kennedy - 2014 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 43 (6):1129-1152.
    This paper is predicated on the idea that some modal operators are better understood as quantificational expressions over worlds that determine not only first-order facts but modal facts also. In what follows, we will present a framework in which these two types of facts are brought closer together. Structural features will be located in the worlds themselves. This result will be achieved by decomposing worlds into parts, where some of these parts will have “modal import” in the (...)
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    Creating the best possible world: Some problems from Parfit.Daniel Cohen - 2009 - Sophia 48 (2):143-150.
    It is sometimes argued that if God were to exist, then the actual world would be the best possible world. However, given that the actual world is clearly not the best possible world, then God doesn’t exist. In response, some have argued that the world could always be improved with the creation of new people and that there is thus no best possible world. I argue that this reasoning gives rise to an instance of Parfit’s mere addition (...)
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  42.  18
    Possible worlds: logic, semantics and ontology.Guido Imaguire & Dale Jacquette (eds.) - 2010 - München: Philosophia.
  43. Individuals, possible worlds, and epistemic logic.Jaakko Hintikka - 1967 - Noûs 1 (1):33-62.
  44. Possible Worlds for Modal Primitivists.Louis deRosset - 2014 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 43 (1):109-131.
    Among the most remarkable developments in metaphysics since the 1950’s is the explosion of philosophical interest in possible worlds. This paper proposes an explanation of what possible worlds are, and argues that this proposal, the interpreted models conception, should be attractive to anyone who thinks that modal facts are primitive, and so not to be explained in terms of some non-modal notion of “possible world.” I articulate three constraints on any acceptable primitivist explanation of the (...)
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  45. Reducing possible worlds to language.Phillip Bricker - 1987 - Philosophical Studies 52 (3):331 - 355.
    The most commonly heard proposals for reducing possible worlds to language succumb to a simple cardinality argument: it can be shown that there are more possible worlds than there are linguistic entities provided by the proposal. In this paper, I show how the standard proposals can be generalized in a natural way so as to make better use of the resources available to them, and thereby circumvent the cardinality argument. Once it is seen just what the (...)
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  46.  52
    (1 other version)On Considering a Possible World as Actual.Robert Stalnaker & Thomas Baldwin - 2001 - Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 75:141-174.
    [Robert Stalnaker] Saul Kripke made a convincing case that there are necessary truths that are knowable only a posteriori as well as contingent truths that are knowable a priori. A number of philosophers have used a two-dimensional model semantic apparatus to represent and clarify the phenomena that Kripke pointed to. According to this analysis, statements have truth-conditions in two different ways depending on whether one considers a possible world 'as actual' or 'as counterfactual' in determining the truth-value of the (...)
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  47. Possible worlds semantics and the liar: reflections on a problem posed by Kaplan.Sten Lindström - 2009 - In Joseph Almog & Paolo Leonardi (eds.), The philosophy of David Kaplan. New York: Oxford University Press.
  48. Possible worlds foundations for probability.John C. Bigelow - 1976 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 5 (3):299--320.
  49. Possible Worlds.Rod Girle - 2003 - Chesham, Bucks: Routledge.
    Ever since Saul Kripke and others developed a semantic interpretation for modal logic, 'possible worlds' has been a much debated issue in contemporary metaphysics. To propose the idea of a possible world that differs in some way from our actual world - for example a world where the grass is red or where no people exist - can help us to analyse and understand a wide range of philosophical concepts, such as counterfactuals, properties, modality, and of course, (...)
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    Possible-Worlds Semantics, Fiction, and Creativity.Arto Mutanen - 2014 - Metodicki Ogledi 21 (2):53-69.
    In the paper we will study the notions of possible-worlds semantics, fiction, and creativity. The intention is to show how the notion of possible-worlds semantics allows us to generate a fresh interpretation of the notions of fiction and creativity. To do this, we have to consider the philosophy of logic. Possible-worlds semantics can be used in interpreting modal notions. The intention is to interpret the notions of fiction and creativity as modal notions. However, the (...)
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