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68Relevance first: relocating similarity in counterfactual semanticsSynthese 198 (11): 10529-10564. 2020.The last several decades of research on counterfactual conditionals in the fields of philosophy and linguistics have yielded a predominant paradigm according to which the notion of similarity plays the starring role. Roughly, a counterfactual of the form A > C is true iff the closest A-worlds are all C-worlds, where the closeness of a world is a function of its similarity, in a certain sense, to the actual world. I argue that this is deeply misguided. In some cases we may only care about the clo…Read more
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458Strict conditional accounts of counterfactualsLinguistics and Philosophy 40 (6): 621-645. 2017.von Fintel and Gillies : 329–360, 2007) have proposed a dynamic strict conditional account of counterfactuals as an alternative to the standard variably strict account due to Stalnaker and Lewis. Von Fintel’s view is motivated largely by so-called reverse Sobel sequences, about which the standard view seems to make the wrong predictions. More recently Moss :561–586, 2012) has offered a pragmatic/epistemic explanation that purports to explain the data without requiring abandonment of the standard…Read more
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Princeton UniversityRegular Faculty (Part-time)
Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America