Possible worlds semantics and true-true counterfactuals
Possible worlds semantics and true-true counterfactuals
The standard semantics for counterfactuals ensures that any counterfactual with a true antecedent and true consequent is itself true. There have been many recent attempts to amend the standard semantics to avoid this result. I show that these proposals invalidate a number of further principles of the standard logic of counterfactuals. The case against the automatic truth of counterfactuals with true components does not extend to these further principles, however, so it is not clear that rejecting the latter should be a consequence of rejecting the former. Instead I consider how one might defuse putative counterexamples to the truth of true-true counterfactuals.
322–346
Walters, Lee
6588848d-16fa-41f1-a94b-c339c3428c13
7 September 2016
Walters, Lee
6588848d-16fa-41f1-a94b-c339c3428c13
Walters, Lee
(2016)
Possible worlds semantics and true-true counterfactuals.
Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 97 (3), .
(doi:10.1111/papq.12067).
Abstract
The standard semantics for counterfactuals ensures that any counterfactual with a true antecedent and true consequent is itself true. There have been many recent attempts to amend the standard semantics to avoid this result. I show that these proposals invalidate a number of further principles of the standard logic of counterfactuals. The case against the automatic truth of counterfactuals with true components does not extend to these further principles, however, so it is not clear that rejecting the latter should be a consequence of rejecting the former. Instead I consider how one might defuse putative counterexamples to the truth of true-true counterfactuals.
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Possible Worlds Semantics and True-True Counterfactuals.pdf
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Accepted/In Press date: 1 May 2015
e-pub ahead of print date: 20 May 2015
Published date: 7 September 2016
Organisations:
Philosophy
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Local EPrints ID: 364938
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/364938
ISSN: 0279-0750
PURE UUID: dede30c6-df9d-4c14-84b8-e7a6e3c55780
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Date deposited: 19 May 2014 08:41
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:48
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