Prioritised ceteris paribus logic for counterfactual reasoning

Synthese 195 (4):1681-1703 (2018)
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Abstract

The semantics for counterfactuals due to David Lewis has been challenged by appealing to miracles. Miracles may skew a given similarity order in favour of those possible worlds which exhibit them. Lewis responded with a system of priorities that mitigates the significance of miracles when constructing similarity relations. We propose a prioritised ceteris paribus analysis of counterfactuals inspired by Lewis’ system of priorities. By analysing the couterfactuals with a ceteris paribus clause one forces out, in a natural manner, those possible worlds which do not satisfy the requirements of the clause, thus excluding miracles. If no world can satisfy the ceteris paribus clause in its entirety, then prioritisation is triggered to select worlds that maximise agreement on those things which are favoured most.

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Patrick Girard
University of Auckland

Citations of this work

A Modal Logic of Supervenience.Jie Fan - 2019 - Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 60 (2):283-309.
Inference to the Best Contradiction?Sam Baron - forthcoming - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.

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References found in this work

Counterfactuals.David K. Lewis - 1973 - Malden, Mass.: Blackwell.
Counterfactuals.David Lewis - 1973 - Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 36 (3):602-605.
Modal Logic: Graph. Darst.Patrick Blackburn, Maarten de Rijke & Yde Venema - 2001 - New York: Cambridge University Press. Edited by Maarten de Rijke & Yde Venema.
An Introduction to Non-Classical Logic: From If to Is.Graham Priest - 2008 - New York: Cambridge University Press.

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