Wondering about the Impossible: On the Semantics of Counterpossibles - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Wondering about the Impossible: On the Semantics of Counterpossibles write by Maciej Sendłak. This book was released on . Wondering about the Impossible: On the Semantics of Counterpossibles available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle.
Wondering about the Impossible: On the Semantics of Counterpossibles
Wondering about the Impossible: On the Semantics of Counterpossibles - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Wondering about the Impossible: On the Semantics of Counterpossibles write by Maciej Sendłak. This book was released on 2024-09-21. Wondering about the Impossible: On the Semantics of Counterpossibles available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This book provides an in-depth analysis of the nature and role of hypothetical reasoning about impossibilities. The interest in this subject stems from the simple observation that wondering is an inherent aspect of our experience. Whether one regrets choosing a taxicab over the subway or contemplates the outcome of an election turning out differently, the question 'What would have happened if...?' is a familiar one. While we often focus on possible scenarios, we also ponder impossible ones: What if whales were fish? What if a man could be in two places at once? What if one could draw a round square? Puzzles concerning such questions sparked a heated discussion over the nature and role of hypothetical reasoning about impossibilities. This book goes beyond being an opinionated introduction to this debate. After comparing various approaches to this issue, it proposes a novel perspective that draws on considerations from epistemology and the philosophy of explanation and dependence. Targeting researchers and students interested in the philosophy of modalities, this book delivers an in-depth analysis of a captivating and often overlooked aspect of human reasoning.
Counterpossibles
Counterpossibles - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Counterpossibles write by Barak L. Krakauer. This book was released on 2012. Counterpossibles available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Counterpossibles are counterfactuals with necessarily false antecedents. The problem of counterpossibles is easiest to state within the "nearest possible world" framework for counterfactuals: on this approach, a counterfactual is true (roughly) when the consequent is true in the "nearest" possible world where the antecedent is true. Since counterpossibles have necessarily false antecedents, there is no possible world where the antecedent is true. On the approach favored by Lewis, Stalnaker, Williamson, and others, counterpossibles are all trivially true. I introduce several arguments against the trivial approach. First, it is counter-intuitive to think that all counterpossibles are true. Second, if all counterpossibles were true, then we could not make sense of their use in logical, philosophical, or mathematical arguments. Making sense of the role of sentences like these requires that they not have vacuous truth conditions. The account of counterpossibles I ultimately favor is an extension of the "nearest possible world" semantics discussed above. The Lewis/Stalnaker account is supplemented with the addition of impossible worlds, and the nearness metric is extended to range over these impossible worlds as well as possible worlds. Thus, a counterfactual is true when its consequent is true in the nearest world where the antecedent is true; if the counterfactual's antecedent is impossible, then the nearest world in question will be an impossible world. Once the framework of impossible worlds and similarity is in place, we can put it to use in the analysis of other philosophical phenomena. I examine one proposal that makes use of a theory of counterpossibles to develop an analysis of the notion of metaphysical dependence.
Impossible Worlds
Impossible Worlds - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Impossible Worlds write by Francesco Berto. This book was released on 2019. Impossible Worlds available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. The latter half of the 20 ...
Thinking the Impossible
Thinking the Impossible - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Thinking the Impossible write by Poonam Dohutia. This book was released on 2009. Thinking the Impossible available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle.
