Counterfactuals

by Lewis, David

• ISBN13: 9780631224952
• ISBN10: 0631224955
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-01-17
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Counterfactuals is David Lewis's forceful presentation of and sustained argument for a particular view about propositions which express contrary-to-fact conditionals, including his famous defense of realism about possible worlds. Since its original publication in 1973, it has become a classic of contemporary philosophy, and is essential reading for anyone interested in the logic and metaphysics of counterfactuals. The book also includes an appendix of related writings by Lewis.

Author Biography

David Lewis (1941- 2001) was Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University. His publications include Convention (reissued by Blackwell 2002), On the Plurality of Worlds (reissued by Blackwell, 2000), Parts of Classes (1991), and of numerous articles in metaphysics and other areas. Many of his writings are available in his Collected Papers.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgements	x
An Analysis of Counterfactuals
Introduction	1	(3)
Strict Conditionals	4	(9)
Variably Strict Conditionals	13	(6)
The Limit Assumption	19	(2)
`Might' Counterfactuals and Outer Modalities	21	(3)
Impossible Antecedents	24	(2)
True Antecedents	26	(5)
Counterfactual Fallacies	31	(5)
Potentialities	36	(8)
Reformulations
Multiple Modalities	44	(1)
Propositional Quantification	45	(3)
Comparative Similarity	48	(2)
Similarity Measures	50	(2)
Comparative Possibility	52	(5)
Cotenability	57	(1)
Selection Functions	57	(4)
The Selection Operator	61	(4)
Comparisons
The Metalinguistic Theory: Implicit Premises	65	(3)
The Metalinguistic Theory: Factual Premises	68	(4)
The Metalinguistic Theory: Laws of Nature	72	(5)
Stalnaker's Theory	77	(7)
Foundations
Possible Worlds	84	(7)
Similarity	91	(5)
Analogies
Conditional Obligation	96	(8)
`When Next' and `When Last'	104	(7)
Contextually Definite Descriptions	111	(7)
Logics
Completeness Results	118	(16)
Decidability Results	134	(3)
Derived Modal Logics	137	(6)
Appendix: Related writings	143	(6)
David Lewis
Index	149