Modality Metaphysics, Logic, and Epistemology

by Hale, Bob; Hoffmann, Aviv

• ISBN13: 9780199671502
• ISBN10: 0199671508
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-03-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The philosophy of modality investigates necessity and possibility, and related notions - are they objective features of mind-independent reality? If so, are they irreducible, or can modal facts be explained in other terms? This volume presents new work on modality by established leaders in thefield and by up-and-coming philosophers. Between them, the papers address fundamental questions concerning realism and anti-realism about modality, the nature and basis of facts about what is possible and what is necessary, the nature of modal knowledge, modal logic and its relations to necessaryexistence and to counterfactual reasoning. The general introduction locates the individual contributions in the wider context of the contemporary discussion of the metaphysics and epistemology of modality.

Author Biography

Bob Hale is Professor of Philosophy at Sheffield University. He has been a British Academy Research Reader (1997-99), and a Leverhulme Senior Research Fellow (2009-11). He previously taught at the University of Glasgow, the University of St. Andrews, and Lancaster University. He works mainly on the philosophy of mathematics and philosophical logic.

Aviv Hoffmann is Lecturer in Philosophy at the Open University of Israel.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Metaphysics and Logic

Merely Possible Propositions

Response to Robert Stalnaker

Logical Necessity

Semantic Necessity

Modal Logic within Counterfactual Logic

Is Timothy Williamson a Necessary Existent?

Metaphysical Dependence: Grounding and Reduction

On the Source of Necessity

The Reality of Modality

IBE, GMR, and Metaphysical Projects

Modal Commitments

Response to John Divers

Epistemology

Permission and (So-Called Epistemic) Possibility

Response to Stephen Yablo

Possible Worlds and the Necessary i A Posteriori/i

Response to Frank Jackson

Apriorism about Modality

Response to Scott Sturgeon

Conceivability and Apparent Possibility

Response to Dominic Gregory

Bibliography

Index

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