The limits of modality

Philosophical Quarterly 61 (244):473-495 (2011)
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Abstract

It is commonly assumed that all propositions have modal profiles and therefore bear their truth-values either contingently or necessarily. I argue against this commonly assumed view and in defence of amodalism, according to which certain true propositions are neither necessarily nor contingently true, but only true simpliciter. I consider three arguments against ‘possible-worlds theories’, which hold that modal concepts are to be analysed in terms of possible worlds. Although each of these arguments targets a different version of possible-worlds theory, these versions jointly exhaust the entire range of possible-worlds theories. After showing that each argument is naturally addressed by adopting amodalism, I argue that all defenders of possible-worlds theory ought to accept amodalism.

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Sam Cowling
Denison University

Citations of this work

The Tenseless Theory of Time and the Moodless Theory of Modality.Bradford Skow - 2018 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 100 (2):506-524.
The Way of Actuality.Sam Cowling - 2014 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 92 (2):231-247.
Extended Modal Dimensionalism.Martin Vacek - 2017 - Acta Analytica 32 (1):13-28.
22 God and Abstract Objects.Scott A. Shalkowski - 2024 - In Mirosław Szatkowski (ed.), Ontology of Divinity. De Gruyter. pp. 445-464.

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