Possible worlds theory and contemporary narratologyupdates the field of possible worlds theory and postclassical narratology by developing this theoretical framework further and applying it to a range of contemporary literary narratives. Lewis held that the best theory of modality posited concrete possible worlds. Any world is amongst the most similar worlds to itself, whilst maintaining i and ii. Leibniz 164617164 as a convenient tool in building a semantic model5 for the modal operators of necessity and of. Lewiss conception of worlds worlds are mereological sums of spatiotemporal objects.
Possible worlds, the lewis principle, and the myth of a. December 1996 elusive knowledge david lewis we know a lot. God created the universe by actualizing one of these possible worldsthe best one. Possible worlds the concept of possible worlds henceforth pw, loosely inspired by leibniz philosophy, was developed in the second half of the 20th century by philosophers of the analytic school kripke, lewis, hintikka 1989, plantinga 1976, rescher as a means to solve problems in formal semantics. I argue that if david lewis modal realism is true, modal realists from different possible worlds can fall in love with each other. This leads into a discussion of david lewis and his claim known as modal realism. Lewis shied away from using the term concrete owing to its.
Frankfurt, harry, 1971, freedom of the will and the concept of a person, journal of philosophy, 68. This applies not only to analytic metaphysics, but to areas as diverse as philosophy of language, philosophy of science, epistemology, and ethics. The possible worlds of the philosopher, david lewis. Possible worlds problems of philosophy 1st edition. That is, more precisely, lewis holds the following thesis on the nature of possible worlds. An inquiry on modal metaphysical puzzling possible worlds author. Lewiss original suggestion was that all possible worlds are equally concrete, and the world in which we find ourselves is no realer than any other possible world. This implies that every possible world agrees on the necessities and impossibilities. This is not the place to discuss the metaphysics of possible worlds in any depth. Lewisian realism about possible worlds starts with the following three assumptions. Also available online in html, pdf, and epub formats in a sidebyside. We argue that on one reading, lewiss theory licenses us to assume maverick possible worlds which spread through logical space gobbling up. Lewis argues that the philosophical utility of modal realism is a good reason for believing that it is true.
Possible worlds is being made available, free of charge, for personal i. I know that phones used to ring, but nowadays squeal, when someone calls up. The intension of a predicate is a function from possible worlds to functions from objects to truthvalues. Three philosophical conceptions of possible worlds. Furthermore, lewis holds that possible worlds are these total universes. Possible worlds, the lewis principle, and the myth of a large. Possible worlds semantics and truetrue counterfactuals. The concept of possible worlds henceforth pw, loosely inspired by leibniz. On lewis s next stage concerning possible worlds, see sedlar 2009. The latter is the view defended by david lewis who. Fortunately, there is a straightforward extension of the lewis stalnaker semantics available that handles counterpossibles. Some of those who served the cause best a few short years ago have turned away.
David lewiss possible worlds theory of fiction tested. An argument against david lewis theory of possible worlds. Lewis indexical argument for worldrelative actuality. Recombining duplicates of parts of di erent worlds yields another possible world, size and shape. What would you give as the intension of a quanti er like nobody. Now and then they rest from their labors to say that possible worlds. The rhetorical force of lewiss argument is in the suggestion that possible worlds are really not such alien entities as the metaphysical flavor of this name seems to. Forrest, peter, 1982, occams razor and possible worlds monist, 65. David lewis in the continuum of possible worlds semantics in philosophy possible worlds semantics began flourishing in modal philosophy in the 1960s when logicians rediscovered the theory of the german philosopher g. An inquiry on modal metaphysical puzzling possible worlds. Instead, we will just start working with them and see what they can do for us. Lewis seeks to clarify this issue by proposing a doctrine of modal realism. Concrete worlds to be a possible world w just is to be a concrete7 individual w such that if. Diana wynne joness chrestomanciseries and david lewiss theory of fiction 41 4.
Armstrong, 1984, an argument against david lewis theory of possible worlds, australasian journal of philosophy, 62. Possible worlds in the context of literary theory 16 3. I offer a method for uniquely picking out possible people who are in love with us and not with our counterparts. Counterfactuals without possible worlds ever since the. I note two competing ambitions for a theory of possible worlds. Other possible worlds are just as real as the actual world. Lewis is not the first to speak of possible worlds in this context.
Australasian journal of philosophy australasian journal of. The epistemology of modality is gradually coming to play a central role in general discussions about modality. And unlike lewis, of course, they construe possible worlds as primitively modal in nature. According to leibniz, the universethe actual worldis one of an infinite number of possible worlds existing in the mind of god. A 1g stalnaker and lewis used similarity rather than. Lewis, for example, both speak of possible worlds as a way of thinking about possibility and necessity, and some of david kaplan s early work is on the counterpart theory. Modal metaphysics internet encyclopedia of philosophy. The intension of a sentence is a function from possible worlds to truthvalues. This barcode number lets you verify that youre getting exactly the right version or edition of a book. They prove only this much, which few would have doubted. Open a book or article of contemporary analytic philosophy, and you are likely to find talk of possible worlds therein. Even though you only occupy the actual world, you have counterparts in other possible worlds that determine the truth of it is possible for me to be a dentist. Possible worlds sort of respectable linguistic entities.
This essay provides an overview of two of the main theories on the nature of possible worlds, namely, lewiss extreme realism and plantinga and stalnakers moderate realism. Possible worlds semantics for modal logic has proven to be theoretically useful. Counterfactuals without possible worlds ever since the pioneering work of stalnaker and lewis1, it has been customary to provide a semantics for counterfactuals statements in terms of possible worlds. Possible worlds stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. In his scorekeeping in a language game essay, mark, wes, dylan, and guest matt teichman consider conversational dynamics, which in part involves thinking about how possible world talk relates to. On the plurality of worlds phillip bricker the notion of a possible world is familiar from leibnizs philosophy, especially the idea parodied by voltaire in candide that the world we inhabit, the actual world, is the best of all possible worlds. Modal realism is the view propounded by david kellogg lewis that all possible worlds are real in the same way as is the actual world.
Instead, we will just start working with them and see what they can do. In order to avoid conjunction conditionalization, lewis 1986. David lewis has famously presented the theory of gen uine modal realism, which insists that possible worlds exist as concrete entities. We will try to show the pragmatic character of lewis arguments in support of this metaphysics of possible worlds.
Or maximal consistent sets of atomic sentences, that is state. The actual world is the world of which we are a part. In 1920 he came back to harvard university, where he had whitehead as colleague for two decades from 1924. Lewis version of the possible worlds semantics in terms of sufficiently close worlds is intended to accommodate failures of the limit assumption. Overall, one can identify the following general principles of the concept of possible worlds, according to american analytical philosopher lewis. The paradoxes of time travel are oddities, not impossibilities. Lewis has suggested a possible remedy to this situation, but commentators have found this to be unsatisfactory. Unlike lewis, they construe possible worlds as abstract representations of concrete worlds, rather than as concrete worlds themselves. Lewis 1973 responds with the idea of a counterpart. Possibleworld theories of counterfactuals bibliography. To read these files, you will need adobe acrobat reader installed on your computer.
David lewis says that possible worlds arc ways things could have been. Lewis is just applying this insight about numbers to possible worlds. Modal realism is the thesis that our world is simply one amongst many. Beginning with a discussion of possible for and possible that, and imagination and fiction, girle moves on to analyse kripkes many logics for possibility and lewis s counterpart worlds. The concept of possible worlds in literary theory 21 3. To talk of ways the world may have been is to talk in modal terms. This volume systematically outlines the theoretical underpinnings of the possible worlds approach, provides. For lewis and, as noted, concretists generally, the actual world is the concrete physical. Lewiss epicycles, possible worlds, and the mysteries of modality. Call any attempt to answer this question a theory of possible worlds. Lewis towards constructing modern modal logic was purely syntactical i. Lewis also considers the idea of closeness of possible worlds and defines such notions as counterfactuals and verisimilitude. Possible worlds semantics university of notre dame.
Inhistwo concepts of possible worlds 1986, peter van inwagen explores and opposes two kinds of views about the nature of possible worlds. Hence, unpacked in terms of the abstractionists definitions, the possible world truth conditions for modal. Epistemic possibility, computation and possible worlds, physically possible worlds, impossible worlds, and real possibility are discussed in separate chapters. Lewis defended this view in his most significant book, on the plurality of worlds. David lewis possible worlds free download as pdf file. Lewis considers the case of a possible worlds analysis of modality showing how the diamond possibly and box necessarily symbols are mutually interdefinable and can be understood in terms of possible worlds. Possible worlds notes stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Watch part 1 of our discussion on david lewis modal realism to find out. This article opposes a view widely accepted in studies concerning the history of modal logic, according to which i the approach of c. Copies of acrobat reader are available free from adobe and are offered in many versions, for various operating systems windows, macintosh, unix, etc. Explicitly, it is to talk of possible ways the world could have been. Scribd is the worlds largest social reading and publishing site.
This paper sets out and evaluates a leading contemporary theory of possible worlds, david lewis s modal realism. Contemporary debates on possible worlds shimpei endo 1. He regards actual as an indexical like i or here a resident. All world in one website university of massachusetts. Ersatzism also goes by the name of ersatz modal realism, actualism about possible. In general, a counterpart will be a nonactual object that is sufficiently similar to you in certain worlds. When lewiss analysis of world is combined with the standard analysis of possibility as truth at some world, island universes turn out to be. In particular, it is not clear how we could know what goes on in other worlds. What are those possible worlds, the entities to which theorists in these disciplines all appeal.
A difficulty for fines exact semantics for counterfactuals penultimate draft thanks in large part to the work of robert stalnaker and david lewis, philosophers standardly use possible worlds semantics for counterfactuals. There exist a vast but finite number of possible worlds that are spatiotemporally and causally isolated from each other. Roughly speaking, the idea is that the counterfactual from a to c should be taken to be true just in case all of the closest. A proposition is possible if and only if it is true at one of these worlds. This paper sets out and evaluates a leading contemporary theory of possible worlds. Then came analyses in terms of possible worlds intuitively. The intension of a name is a function from possible worlds to objects. The views principal proponent is david lewis, and his label for it is modal. To use modal concepts like possible and necessary, we need to talk about possible worlds or more precisely, talking about possible worlds makes sense of the commonsense modal intuitions that result in us using these terms. David lewis possible worlds modal logic space scribd. Possible worlds theory and contemporary narratology on jstor.
But it is not instantly clear what it means to say that something is possible. Lewis no less tendentiously refers to abstractionism as magical ersatzism ersatzism because, in lewiss view, concrete worlds constitute the most natural. It is a striking image, this picture of an infinite swarm of total universes, each by its natural inclination for existence striving for a position that. What does it mean to say something might have been true. Copies of acrobat reader are available free from adobe and are offered in many. Roughly speaking, the idea is that the counterfactual from a to c. Although possible world has been part of the philosophical lexicon at least since leibniz, the notion became firmly entrenched in contemporary philosophy with the development of possible world semantics for the languages of propositional and firstorder modal logic. The meaning of an expression, on this view, comprises not just the expressions reference in the actual world, but also what the expression would have referred to, had the actual world been di erent. Lewis calls our world the actual world, but actual signi.
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