Counterpart theories for everyone

Author:

Varzi Achille C.ORCID

Abstract

AbstractDavid Lewis’s counterpart theory (CT) is often seen as involving a radical departure from the standard, Kripke-style semantics for modal logic (ML), suggesting that we are dealing with deeply divergent accounts of our modal talk. However, CT captures but one version of the relevant semantic intuition, and does so on the basis of metaphysical assumptions (all worlds are equally real, individuals are world-bound) that are ostensibly discretionary. Just as ML can be translated into a language that quantifies explicitly over worlds, CT may be formulated as a semantic theory in which world quantification is purely metalinguistic. And just as Kripke-style semantics is formally compatible with the doctrine of world-boundedness, a counterpart-based semantics may in principle allow for cases of trans-world identity. In fact, one may welcome a framework that is general enough to include both Lewis’s counterpart-based account and Kripke’s identity-based account as distinguished special cases. There are several ways of doing so. The purpose of this paper is to outline a fully general option and to illustrate its philosophical significance, showing how the large variety of intermediate relations that lie between Lewisian counterparthood and Kripkean identity yield a corresponding variety of modal theories that would otherwise remain uncharted.

Funder

Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin e.V.

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Subject

General Social Sciences,Philosophy

Reference68 articles.

1. Bacon, A. (2014). Representing counterparts. The Australasian Journal of Logic, 11, 90–113.

2. Barwise, J., & Perry, J. (1985). Shifting situations and shaken attitudes. An interview. Linguistics and Philosophy, 8, 105–161.

3. Belardinelli, F. (2006). Quantified modal logic and the ontology of physical objects. Pisa, Scuola Normale Superiore, Ph.D. thesis.

4. Belardinelli, F. (2007). Counterpart semantics for quantified modal logic. In R. Honzík & O. Tomala (Eds.), The logica yearbook 2006 (pp. 11–22). Prague: Filosofia.

5. Braüner, T., & Ghilardi, S. (2007). First-order modal logic. In P. Blackburn, J. van Benthem, & F. Wolter (Eds.), Handbook of modal logic (pp. 549–620). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Cited by 3 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3