Category: Counterfactuals
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Politics, Lies, and Counterfactuals
Suppose I say 1) Had Jeb Bush won the 2016 Republican nomination for president, Hillary Clinton would have won the presidential election. We know, of course, that Donald J. Trump won the 2016 election. Suppose an Anti-Trumper calls me a liar for asserting (1). Have I lied? That depends on what a lie is. What…
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Per Impossibile Counterfactual Conditionals
God is a necessary being. That means: given that God exists, it is metaphysically impossible that he not exist. My opening sentence does not imply that God exists. It merely reports on God's modal status. Let us assume both that God exists and that all truth depends on God. How might this relation of dependence…
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LIes and Counterfactuals
Suppose I say 1) Had Jeb Bush won the 2016 Republican nomination, Hillary Clinton would have won the presidential election. Suppose a Never-Trumper calls me a liar. Have I lied? A lie is an intentional misrepresentation of a truth known by the one who lies in order to deceive the person or persons being lied…
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A Per Impossibile Counterfactual
If cats had wings, they would spread them at dusk. There is something feminine about cats, all cats, and something owlish as well.
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‘Probative Overkill’ Objections to the Potentiality Principle
Here is a simple version of the Potentiality Argument (PA): 1. All potential persons have a right to life.2. The human fetus is a potential person.—–3. The human fetus has a right to life. Does PA 'prove too much'? It does if the proponent of PA has no principled way of preventing PA from transmogrifying…
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Modal Sentences and Truncated Counterfactual Conditionals
Let's think about the following modal sentence: 1. My expository skills could be better than they are. (1) is a modal sentence because of the presence in it of the modal word 'could.' Whether or not you agree with me that (1) is true, you must concede that (1) has a definite meaning understandable by…