Dissolving Yablo’s Hostage Crisis: In Defence of Defiance

Australasian Philosophical Review 1 (2):184-188 (2017)
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Abstract

Yablo suggests a ‘hostage crisis’ occurs when an unproblematic statement ϕ entails, and is therefore hostage to, a problematic statement ψ. Yablo proposes a technical solution to this kind of problem by diminishing ϕ to ϕ*, where ϕ* does not entail ψ and thus is not hostage to it. I argue that Yablo’s proposal is unnecessary because the original, undiminished ϕ does not in fact entail ψ. This is what Yablo calls a ‘defiant’ position. I defend defiance by arguing that ϕ and ψ are of different metaphysical weights, which I show through an analysis of their use of quantification.

Author's Profile

Suki Finn
Royal Holloway University of London

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