Abductive two-dimensionalism: a new route to the a priori identification of necessary truths

Synthese 197 (1):59-93 (2020)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Epistemic two-dimensional semantics, advocated by Chalmers and Jackson, among others, aims to restore the link between necessity and a priority seemingly broken by Kripke, by showing how armchair access to semantic intensions provides a basis for knowledge of necessary a posteriori truths. The most compelling objections to E2D are that, for one or other reason, the requisite intensions are not accessible from the armchair. As we substantiate here, existing versions of E2D are indeed subject to such access-based objections. But, we moreover argue, the difficulty lies not with E2D but with the typically presupposed conceiving-based epistemology of intensions. Freed from that epistemology, and given the right alternative—one where inference to the best explanation provides the operative guide to intensions—E2D can meet access-based objections, and fulfill its promise of restoring the desirable link between necessity and a priority. This result serves as a central application of Biggs and Wilson, according to which abduction is an a priori mode of inference.

Similar books and articles

The a priority of abduction.Stephen Biggs & Jessica M. Wilson - 2017 - Philosophical Studies 174 (3):735-758.
Carnap, the necessary a priori, and metaphysical anti-realism.Stephen Biggs & Jessica M. Wilson - 2016 - In Stephen Blatti & Sandra Lapointe (eds.), Ontology after Carnap. Oxford: pp. 81-104.
Abduction and Modality.Stephen Biggs - 2010 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 83 (2):283-326.
Necessity and Apriority.Gordon Prescott Barnes - 2007 - Philosophical Studies 132 (3):495-523.
Knowledge and modality.A. Casullo - 2010 - Synthese 172 (3):341 - 359.
Kripke’s sole route to the necessary a posteriori.Erin Eaker - 2014 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 44 (3-4):388-406.
How Do We Know Necessary Truths? Kant's Answer.Robert Hanna - 2002 - European Journal of Philosophy 6 (2):115-145.

Analytics

Added to PP
2017-04-07

Downloads
885 (#14,577)

6 months
119 (#26,281)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Stephen Biggs
Iowa State University
Jessica M. Wilson
University of Toronto at Scarborough