Existence and Knowledge

Existence and Knowledge

Possible Worlds from the Viewpoints of Kripke, Plantinga and David Lewis

Document Type : Research Article

Author
Mohammad Saeedimehr
Professor in Philosophy and Islamic Theology
Abstract
Kripke applied the notion of possible worlds to present formal semantics of modal logic. However, the application of the notion of possible worlds is not restricted to modal logic semantics. Rather, this notion has also been used in certain  theories of philosophy of language or philosophy of logic in such theories of the nature of propositions.
In view of the increasing significance of the notion of possible worlds, the present article studies in short the views certain contemporary theoreticians have raised on the nature of these worlds and their alleged characteristics. To do so, the writer first gives a very intensive account of Kripke’s metaphysical views on the nature of possible worlds and the two chief approaches to the notion of possible worlds under the titles of realism positivism and abstractionism and goes on to make a comparative analysis in this regard.
To meet this purpose, the writer deals with David Lewis’s view as the most influential representative of realism positivism and Alvin Plantinga’s view as the distinguished representative of abstractionism.
Keywords
Possible worlds
kripke
Plantinga
Lewis the correspondence theory
منابع‌:
1-Haack, S. Philosophy of Logics, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978).
2- Hughes, G. E. and M. J. Cresswell, A New Introduction To Modal Logic, (London: Routledge, 1996).
3- Kripke, S. "Semantical Considerations on Modal Logic", Acta Philosophica Fennica, 16, 1963, pp. 83-94. Reprinted in Reference and Modality, L. Linsky (ed.), (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971).
4- Kripke, S. Naming and Necessity, (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1980).
5- Lewis, David., "Counterpart Theory and Quantified Modal Logic", Journal of Philosophy, 1968.
6- D. Lewis, "Attitudes de dicto and de re", Philosophical Papers I, pp. 134-135.
7- Lewis, David, Counterfactuals (Cambridge: Mass, 1973).
8- Lewis, David, On the Plurality of Worlds, (Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1986).
9- Lycan, William, "The Trouble with Possible Worlds", in The Possible and The Actual, M. Loux (ed.), (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, pp.292-297, 1979).
10- Mackie, J. L., Truth, Probability and Paradox, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973).
11- McMichael, Alan, "A Problem For Actualism About Possible Worlds", The Philosophical Review, XCII, No. 1, 1983.
12- Plantinga, A. ,The Nature of Necessity, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974).
13- Plantinga, A., "Actualism and Possible Worlds", Theoria, 42, 1976.
14- Plantinga, A., "Two Concepts of Modality: Modal Realism and Modal Reductionism", Philosophical Perspectives, 1, (Metaphysics), 1987.
15- Pollock, John, "Plantinga On the Possible Worlds", in Alvin Plantinga ,James Tomberlin and Peter van Inwagen (eds.), (Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1985).
16- Resher, N., "How Many Possible Worlds Are There?", Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. LIX, No. 2, June 1999.
17- Shalkowski, Scott A., The Metaphysics of Modality: a Study in the Foundations of Necessity, Ph. D Dissertation: University of Michigan, 1984Stalnaker, R., "Possible Worlds", Nous , Vol. 10, 1976.
18_ Unger, P., "Minimizing Arbitrariness: Toward a Metaphysics of Infinitely Many Isolated Concrete Worlds", Midwest Studies in Philosophy IX, 1984, pp. 29-51.
Send comment about this article
Enter Name.
Enter a valid email address.
Enter a vaid affiliation.
Enter comments (At leaset 10 words)
CAPTCHA Image
Enter Security Code Correctly.