MODAL REALISM AND PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS: THE CASE OF ISLAND UNIVERSES
Filozofia 68 (10) (2013)
Abstract
The paper outlines and immediately discusses the so-called ‘soft’ impossibility, i.e.,
non-logical impossibility generated by modal realism. It will be shown that although
in a particular case genuine modal realism, straightforwardly applied, deems impossible
a proposition that other philosophers have claimed to be (intuitively) possible,
there is a variety of methodologically acceptable moves available in order to avoid
the problem. The impossibility at issue is the existence of island universes. Given the
Lewisian analysis there are three points at which we might try to square genuine modal
realism with such a controversial and problematic claim of (im)possibility,
namely: a) the contraction of our pre-theoretical opinions about possibility, b) the revision
of some Lewisian definitions and/or c) the extension of our ontological commitments.
I shall look at each of these approaches applied to the problematic case.
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2014-01-13
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198 ( #27,180 of 58,485 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
20 ( #35,281 of 58,485 )
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