Benardete paradoxes, patchwork principles, and the infinite past

Synthese 203 (2):51 (2024)
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Abstract

Benardete paradoxes involve a beginningless set each member of which satisfies some predicate just in case no earlier member satisfies it. Such paradoxes have been wielded on behalf of arguments for the impossibility of an infinite past. These arguments often deploy patchwork principles in support of their key linking premise. Here I argue that patchwork principles fail to justify this key premise.

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Joseph Schmid
Princeton University

References found in this work

Philosophical papers.David Kellogg Lewis - 1983 - New York: Oxford University Press.
On the Plurality of Worlds.David Lewis - 1986 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 178 (3):388-390.
The Indispensability of Mathematics.Mark Colyvan - 2001 - Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Paradox without Self-Reference.Stephen Yablo - 1993 - Analysis 53 (4):251-252.

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