Abstract

With the aim of providing an empiricist-friendly rational reconstruction of scientists’ modal talk, I represent and defend the following unoriginal idea of relative modalities, focused on natural ones: the assertion of physical necessity of φ can be understood as the logical provability of φ from the background theory of the context of assertion. I elaborate on my conception of the background theory, and reply to a number of objections, among which an objection concerning the failure of factivity.