Abstract

The triumphal advance of the beings from logical space seems less formidable from the inside. This chapter deals with those enthusiasts who are even now preparing to bring on the impossible world. Trial‐and‐error modal logic is not the only way to take modality as primitive. There is also the option of reducing possible worlds to maximal consistent “books” of propositions. The books may be enough like possible worlds so that at least some of the explanatory power of possible worlds semantics carries over. There are unproblematic mathematical entities that can be regarded as representing distributions of matter in space‐time, and thereby as representing the possible worlds where matter is so distributed. An account is to be found in Quince's "Propositional Objects." According to classical mathematics, these representatives do form a set. But propositions are sometimes conceived differently, as language independent entities that nevertheless have something analogous to syntactic structure.