Counterfactuals and Arbitrariness
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
The pattern of credences we are inclined to assign to counterfactuals challenges standard accounts of counterfactuals. In response to this prob- lem, the paper develops a semantics of counterfactuals in terms of the epsilon-operator. The proposed semantics stays close to the standard ac- count: the epsilon-operator substitutes the universal quantifier present in standard semantics by arbitrarily binding the open world-variable. Various applications of the suggested semantics are explored including, in particu- lar, an explanation of how the puzzling credences in counterfactuals come about.
Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1021-1055 |
| Number of pages | 34 |
| Journal | Mind |
| Volume | 123 |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |
| Peer-reviewed | Yes |
External IDs
| Scopus | 84925383995 |
|---|---|
| ORCID | /0000-0002-9962-2074/work/142234599 |