Counterfactual Skepticism and Multidimensional Semantics

Erkenntnis 83 (5):875-898 (2018)
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Abstract

It has recently been argued that indeterminacy and indeterminism make most ordinary counterfactuals false. I argue that a plausible way to avoid such counterfactual skepticism is to postulate the existence of primitive modal facts that serve as truth-makers for counterfactual claims. Moreover, I defend a new theory of ‘might’ counterfactuals, and develop assertability and knowledge criteria to suit such unobservable ‘counterfacts’.

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Author's Profile

H. Orri Stefansson
Stockholm University

Citations of this work

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Halfway Proportionality.Bram Vaassen - 2022 - Philosophical Studies (9):1-21.
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References found in this work

Knowledge and its limits.Timothy Williamson - 2000 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Counterfactuals.David K. Lewis - 1973 - Malden, Mass.: Blackwell.
The metaphysics within physics.Tim Maudlin - 2007 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Monism: The Priority of the Whole.Jonathan Schaffer - 2010 - Philosophical Review 119 (1):31-76.

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