PHIL315 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Modal Realism, Possible World
7 May 2018
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Fie-tuig arguet
❖ Step 1- explanation needed; so weird, need explanation (really low probability needs
special explanation)
❖ Step 2- best explanation = God
❖ Really improbable things happen all the time
❖ Every possible value of constants happen in every combination; we are in a world that
constants occurred in a way for intelligent life
❖ Standard reply to step 2 = many worlds
❖ Every possible thing (arbitrary and contingent) that could happen happens in at least
one world, according to Lewis
Uncountable infinity of worlds
❖ Whe e sa thigs like “herlok hoes does ot eist are e speakig
unrestrictedly? (all the possible worlds; if he does not exist = false), or restrictedly?
(true: implicit restriction = the actual world… theres o atual “herlok Holes)
❖ Vaninwagen – clash b/w common sense and his view; happy to revise common sense
(he thinks common sense people believe in chairs; he thinks they are mistaken)
❖ Lewis – reluctant to revise common sense; respects common sense within limits
o Our senses = direct perception
o Modal realism
o Most realists about possible worlds = faint-hearted: quienian = one concrete
totality containing all that there is, all that exists, and all that is actual;
existence=actuality… ersets ie
▪ Possible worlds are more like fictional characters; abstract; exist, actual,
apart of this world, but abstract parts of this world;
▪ This concrete totality that we are a part of, is not a possible world
▪ Only one of the possible worlds is actualized
❖ Lewis thinks there are 3 basic choices for erthetism
o A non-fitio should e a true stor… hat is it for a stor to e true? –
description of events (set of propositions that are all true) must actually have
occurred in the history of the orld… a possible world is a complete story of a
world – linguistic erthetism… maximally consistent set of propositions = maximal
consistent way a world may be ... most common
o One way to represent world – pictorially, that are ore/less realisti… the ore
realistic they are, the more they correspond to reality
o Magial erthetis – in virtue of what, does something represent a world? The
structure of the story/picture corresponds in the right way to the structure of the
world. Representation relation is a matter of the match between the two
structures. Magial erthetis sas that its ot like the other to… the relatio is
PRIMITIVE
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Document Summary
Step 1- explanation needed; so weird, need explanation (really low probability needs special explanation) Really improbable things happen all the time. Every possible value of constants happen in every combination; we are in a world that constants occurred in a way for intelligent life. Standard reply to step 2 = many worlds. Every possible thing (arbitrary and contingent) that could happen happens in at least one world, according to lewis. Vaninwagen clash b/w common sense and his view; happy to revise common sense (he thinks common sense people believe in chairs; he thinks they are mistaken) The structure of the story/picture corresponds in the right way to the structure of the world. Representation relation is a matter of the match between the two structures. Magi(cid:272)al erthetis(cid:373) sa(cid:455)s that its (cid:374)ot like the other t(cid:449)o the relatio(cid:374) is. 3 versions: linguistic languages are arbitrary; words do(cid:374)(cid:859)t ha(cid:448)e (cid:374)atural (cid:373)ea(cid:374)i(cid:374)g: pictorial succeed in representing by resemblance, (cid:862)(cid:373)agi(cid:272)al(cid:863)
