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      Lewis' Reduction of Modality

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      Author
      Berkovski, S.
      Date
      2011
      Source Title
      Acta Analytica
      Print ISSN
      0353-5150
      Volume
      26
      Issue
      2
      Pages
      95 - 114
      Language
      English
      Type
      Article
      Item Usage Stats
      134
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      Abstract
      I start by reconsidering two familiar arguments against modal realism. The argument from epistemology relates to the issue whether we can infer the existence of concrete objects by a priori means. The argument from pragmatics purports to refute the analogy between the indispensability of possible worlds and the indispensability of unobserved entities in physical science and of numbers in mathematics. Then I present two novel objections. One focusses on the obscurity of the notion of isolation required by modal realism. The other stresses the arbitrary nature of the rules governing the behaviour of Lewisean universes. All four objections attack the reductive analysis of modality that is supposed to be the chief merit of modal realism.
      Keywords
      Contingency
      David Lewis
      Isolation
      Modal realism
      Necessity
      Spacetime
      Permalink
      http://hdl.handle.net/11693/21916
      Published Version (Please cite this version)
      http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12136-009-0070-4
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