Antecedent-Relative Comparative World Similarity |
| |
Authors: | Charles B Cross |
| |
Institution: | (1) Department of Philosophy, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-1627, USA |
| |
Abstract: | In “Backward Causation and the Stalnaker–Lewis Approach to Counterfactuals,” Analysis 62:191–7, (2002), Michael Tooley argues that if a certain kind of backward causation is possible, then a Stalnaker–Lewis comparative world
similarity account of the truth conditions of counterfactuals cannot be sound. In “Tooley on Backward Causation,” Analysis 63:157–62, (2003), Paul Noordhof argues that Tooley’s example can be reconciled with a Stalnaker–Lewis account of counterfactuals if the comparative
world similarity relation on which the Stalnaker–Lewis account relies is allowed to be antecedent-relative. In this paper
I show that taking comparative world similarity to be antecedent-relative results in a formal semantics which is a comparative
world similarity semantics in name only. |
| |
Keywords: | comparative world similarity conditionals counterfactuals Lewis Noordhof Stalnaker Tooley |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|