Conditionals

by Woods, Michael; Wiggins, David; Edgington, Dorothy

• ISBN13: 9780198751267
• ISBN10: 0198751265
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-07-17
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

Conditionals has at its centre an extended essay on this problematic and much-debated subject in the philosophy of language and logic, which the widely respected Oxford philosopher Michael Woods had been preparing for publication at the time of his death in 1993. Woods discusses thedistinction between different kinds of conditionals, and then goes on to cover a range of topics, including assertibility, conditional probability, possible-worlds theories, and conditional commands and questions. He ends up sketching a new theory of counterfactual conditionals. This essay is edited for publication by Wood's friend and colleague David Wiggins, and accompanied by a commentary specially written by a leading expert on the topic, Dorothy Edgington. The masterful and original treatment of conditionals presented in this book will demand the attention of allphilosophers working in this area.

Author Biography

Michael Woods was Official Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at Brasenose College, Oxford, from 1961 until his death at the age of 58 in 1993.

Table of Contents

David Wiggins

Foreword

Michael Woods

Conditionals

The Varieties of Conditional

Theories of Simple Conditionals

Ramsey's Test and Adam's Hypothesis

Simple Conditionals and Truth-Values: Some Proposals

Conditionals and Possible Worlds

Compound Conditionals and Truth-Values

A Theory of Simple Conditionals

Sketch of a Theory of Counterfactual Conditionals

Dorothy Edgington

Commentary

Taxonomy

Assertibility

Ramsey and Adams

Truth Values

Possible Worlds

Compounds

Other Conditional Speech Acts

Non-Simple Conditionals

List of Works Cited

Michael Woods 1934--1993: Obituary and Curriculum Vitae

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.