Fictionalism about Impossible Worlds

Yusuke Satake [PDF]

Abstract

As philosophers have discovered theoretical limits of intensional frameworks
for analyzing philosophical phenomena, which have been partly but intimately
developed along with the theories about possible worlds, the attention directed
to impossible worlds as further theoretical resources has been increasing. This
fact naturally provokes the ontological question: what is the nature of impossible
worlds? Given the growing importance of the ontology of impossible worlds, I
aim to defend the fictionalism about impossible worlds in this paper. First, I
divide the positions in the ontology of impossible worlds into six kinds based on
whether possible and impossible worlds are concrete, abstract, or fictional.
Second, I examine each position and show that the most promising view is that
impossible worlds are fictional while possible worlds are either concrete or
abstract. Finally, I consider and try to accommodate possible concerns with the
fictionalism about impossible worlds.

References

1. Adams, R. M. (1974). Theories of Actuality. Noûs, 8, 211–231.
2. Armstrong, D. M. (1989). A Combinatorial Theory of Possibility. Cambridge University Press.
3. Armstrong, D. M. (2004). Truth and Truthmakers. Cambridge University Press.
4. Berto, F. (2009). Impossible Worlds and Propositions: Against the Parity Thesis. Philosophical Quarterly, 60, 471–486.
5. Fine, K. (2001). The Question of Realism. Philosophers’ Imprint, 1, 1–30.
6. Lewis, D. K. (1973a). Counterfactuals. Blackwell.
7. Lewis, D. K. (1973b). Causation. Journal of Philosophy, 70, 556–567.
8. Lewis, D. K. (1986). On the Plurality of Worlds. Wiley-Blackwell.
9. Lewis, D. K. (1997). Finkish Dispositions. Philosophical Quarterly, 47, 143–158.
10. Loux, M. J. (ed.) (1979). The Possible and the Actual: Readings in the Metaphysics of Modality. Cornell University Press.
11. Manley, D., Chalmers, D. & Wasserman, R. (Eds.) (2009). Metametaphysics: New Essays on the Foundations of Ontology. Oxford University Press.
12. Nolan, D. (1997). Impossible Worlds: A Modest Approach. Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, 38, 535–572.
13. Nolan, D. (2014). Hyperintensional Metaphysics. Philosophical Studies, 171, 141–160.
14. Plantinga, A. (1974). The Nature of Necessity, Clarendon Press.
15. Priest, G. (1997). Sylvan’s Box. Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, 38, 573–581.
16. Quine, W. V. O. (1963). From a Logical Point of View, Harper Torchbook edition, Harper & Row.
17. Rescher, N. (Ed.) (1968). Studies in Logical Theory (American Philosophical Quarterly Monographs 2). Blackwell.
18. Rescher, N. (1979). The Ontology of the Possible. in M. J. Loux (Ed.) (1979), 166–181.
19. Rodriguez-Pereyra, G. (2002). Resemblance Nominalism: A Solution to the Problem of Universals, Oxford University Press.
20. Rosen, G. (1990). Modal Fictionalism. Mind, 99, 327–354.
21. Schaffer, J. (2009). On What Grounds What. in D. Manley, D. Chalmers & R. Wasserman (Eds.) (2009), 347–383.
22. Sider, T. (2011). Writing the Book of the World. Oxford University Press.
23. Stalnaker, R. (1968). A Theory of Conditionals. in N. Rescher (Ed.) (1968), 98–112.
24. Stalnaker, R. (1976). Possible Worlds. Noûs, 10, 65–75.
25. Stalnaker, R. (1984). Inquiry. The MIT Press.
26. Vacek, M. (2013). Concrete Impossibile Worlds. Filozofia, 68, 523–529.
27. van Inwagen, P. (1986). Two Concepts of Possible Worlds. Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 11, 185–213.
28. Yagisawa, T. (1988). Beyond Possible Worlds. Philosophical Studies, 53, 175–204.
29. Yagisawa, T. (2010). Worlds and Individuals, Possible and Otherwise. Oxford University Press.