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233Manifesting belief in absolute necessityPhilosophical Studies 158 (1): 109-130. 2012.McFetridge (in Logical necessity and other essays . London: Blackwell, 1990 ) suggests that to treat a proposition as logically necessary—to believe a proposition logically necessary, and to manifest that belief—is a matter of preparedness to deploy that proposition as a premise in reasoning from any supposition. We consider whether a suggestion in that spirit can be generalized to cover all cases of absolute necessity, both logical and non-logical, and we conclude that it can. In Sect. 2, we ex…Read more
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119(Once again) Lewis on the analysis of modalitySynthese 197 (11): 4645-4668. 2020.We propose a novel interpretation of Lewis on the analysis of modality that is constructed from primary sources, comprehensive and unprecedented. Our guiding precepts are to distinguish semantics from metaphysics, while respecting the inter-relations between them, and to discern whatever may be special, semantically or metaphysically, about the modal case. Following detailed presentation, we amplify and advocate our interpretation by providing a conforming genealogy of Lewis’s theory of modality…Read more
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16Nature of Contingency: Quantum Physics as Modal Realism, by Alastair WilsonMind 131 (524): 1357-1364. 2021.The interpretation of quantum mechanics due to Everett (1957) postulates the existence of many worlds. The analysis of modality due to Lewis (1986) is supported.
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On some arguments for the necessity and irreducibility of necessityIn Ivette Fred Rivera & Jessica Leech (eds.), Being Necessary: Themes of Ontology and Modality from the Work of Bob Hale., Oxford University Press. 2018.
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Modal anti-realismIn Otávio Bueno & Scott A. Shalkowski (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Modality, Routledge. 2018.
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193W(h)ither Metaphysical Necessity?Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 92 (1): 1-25. 2018.I argue that a pragmatic scepticism about metaphysical modality is a perfectly reasonable position to maintain. I then illustrate the difficulties and limitations associated with some strategies for defeating such scepticism. These strategies appeal to associations between metaphysical modality and the following: objective probability, counterfactuals and distinctive explanatory value.
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25Review of Hallvard Lillehammer (eds.), Gonzalo Rodriguez-pereyra (eds.), Real Metaphysics: Essays in Honour of D. H. Mellor, Routledge (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2003 (11). 2003.
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35Philosophical Issues from Kripke’s ‘Semantical Considerations on Modal Logic’Principia: An International Journal of Epistemology 20 (1): 1-44. 2016.Kripke; possible-world semantics; pure and applied semantics; models of modal space; applicability.
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122Minimalism and the unbearable lightness of beingPhilosophical Papers 24 (2): 127-139. 1995.No abstract
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68Recent Work On Supervenience (review)Philosophical Books 39 (2): 81-91. 1998.At the core of the concept of supervenience are certain general maxims— notably, that there can be no A-differences without B-differences and that Bindiscernibility must bring A-discernibility. Supervenience is thus conceived as a matter of modal covariance between two sets of things in a given category, usually properties. The perennial issues surrounding supervenience concern: (a) the variety of specifically formulated theses that serve the core maxims and the patterns of entailment that obtai…Read more
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41_ The Nature of Contingency _: _ Quantum Physics as Modal Realism _, by AlastairWilson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. xi + 219.
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The modal metaphysics of Alvin PlantingaIn Deane-Peter Baker (ed.), Alvin Plantinga, Cambridge University Press. 2007.
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110Advanced modalizing de dicto and de reAnalysis 78 (3): 415-425. 2018.Lewis’ analysis of modality faces a problem in that it appears to confer unintended truth values to certain modal claims about the pluriverse: e.g. ‘It is possible that there are many worlds’ is false when we expect truth. This is the problem of advanced modalizing. Divers presents a principled solution to this problem by treating modal modifiers as semantically redundant in some such cases. However, this semantic move does not deal adequately with advanced de re modal claims. Here, we motivate …Read more
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262The analytic limit of genuine modal realismMind 111 (441): 15-36. 2002.According to the Genuine Modal Realist, there is a plurality of possible worlds, each world nothing more than a maximally inter-related spatiotemporal sum. One advantage claimed for this position is that it offers us the resources to analyse, in a noncircular manner, the modal operators. In this paper, we argue that the prospects for such an analysis are poor. For the analysis of necessity as truth in all worlds to succeed it is not enough that no modal concepts be used in the realist's account …Read more
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57On the prohibitive cost of indiscernible concrete possible worldsAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 72 (3). 1994.This Article does not have an abstract
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196Coincidence and formAristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 82 (1): 119-137. 2008.I compare a Lewisian defence of monism with Kit Fine's defence of pluralism. I argue that the Lewisian defence is, at present, the clearer in its explanatory intent and ontological commitments. I challenge Fine to explain more fully the nature of the entities that he postulates and the relationship between continuous material objects and the parts of those rigid embodiments in terms of which he proposes to explain crucial, modal and sortal, features of those objects.
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124Belief in Absolute NecessityPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 87 (2): 358-391. 2012.We outline a theory of the cognitive role of belief in absolute necessity that is normative and intended to be metaphysically neutral. We take this theory to be unique in scope since it addresses simultaneously the questions of how such belief is (properly) acquired and of how it is (properly) manifest. The acquisition and manifestation conditions for belief in absolute necessity are given univocally, in terms of complex higher-order attitudes involving two distinct kinds of supposition (A-suppo…Read more
University of Glasgow
PhD, 1990
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |
Areas of Interest
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |