Counteridenticals

Dados Bibliográficos

ID10693801
AutoresAlexander W Kocurek (0000-0002-0912-1488, University of California, Berkeley, autor correspondente)
Ano2018
Volume127
Fascículo3
Páginas323-369
Data de publicação2018-07-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Philosophical Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0031-8108 • E-ISSN: 1558-1470
EditoraDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00318108-6718783
OpenAlexW4255983949
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5
Referências citadas51

A counteridentical is a counterfactual with an identity statement in the antecedent. While counteridenticals generally seem nontrivial, most semantic theories for counterfactuals, when combined with the necessity of identity and distinctness, attribute vacuous truth conditions to such counterfactuals. In light of this, one could try to save the orthodox theories either by appealing to pragmatics or by denying that the antecedents of alleged counteridenticals really contain identity claims. Or one could reject the orthodox theory of counterfactuals in favor of a hyperintensional semantics that accommodates nontrivial counterpossibles. In this article, I argue that none of these approaches can account for all the peculiar features of counteridenticals. Instead, I propose a modified version of Lewis's counterpart theory, which rejects the necessity of identity, and show that it can explain all the peculiar features of counteridenticals in a satisfactory way. I conclude by defending the plausibility of contingent identity from objections

Aesthetics · Analytic philosophy · Antecedent (behavioral psychology) · Contemporary philosophy · Counterfactual conditional · Counterfactual thinking · Epistemology · Identity (music) · Linguistics · Metaphysics · Philosophy of language · Philosophy of mind · Possible world · Pragmatics · Semantics (computer science) · Statement (logic) · Truth condition · Computer Science · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · Logic, Reasoning, and Knowledge · Philosophy · Philosophy and Theoretical Science · Psychology · Social Psychology