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Two morals about a modal paradox

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Roberts, Alexander 

Abstract

Abstract: Chisholm’s paradox serves as an important constraint on our modal theorising. For example, one lesson of the paradox is that widely accepted essentialist theses appear incompatible with metaphysical necessity obeying a logic that includes S4. However, this article cautions against treating Chisholm’s paradox in isolation, as a single line of reasoning. To this end, the article outlines two crucial morals about Chisholm’s paradox which situate the paradox within a broad family of paradoxes. Each moral places significant constraints on the paradox’s solution space. In light of this perspective, the paper applies the two morals to a recently proposed solution to Chisholm’s Paradox by Benj Hellie, Murray and Wilson (in: Bennett and Zimmerman (eds) Oxford studies in metaphysics, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2012).

Description

Funder: University of Cambridge

Keywords

Article, Metaphysical modality, Chisholm’s Paradox, Modal logic, Relativised metaphysical modality

Journal Title

Synthese

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0039-7857
1573-0964

Volume Title

198

Publisher

Springer Netherlands