Possibility

✍ Scribed by Michael Jubien

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 228
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Possibility offers a new analysis of the metaphysical concepts of possibility and necessity, one that does not rely on any sort of "possible worlds." The analysis proceeds from an account of the notion of a physical object and from the positing of properties and relations. It is motivated by considerations about how we actually speak of and think of objects. Michael Jubien discusses several closely related topics, including different purported varieties of possible worlds, the doctrine of "essentialism," natural kind terms and alleged examples of necessity a posteriori. The book also offers a new theory of the functioning of proper names, both actual and fictional, and the discussion of natural kind terms and necessity a posteriori depends in part on this theory.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 10
Introduction......Page 12
1. What is There?......Page 18
2. Quantifiers and Objects......Page 19
3. Do any Objects Persist Through Time?......Page 26
4. Ordinary Things and the Great Divide......Page 32
5. The Identities of Objects......Page 39
6. Mereological Essentialism......Page 53
1. Face Value......Page 58
2. Posits......Page 60
3. Identity Conditions......Page 63
4. About Properties......Page 71
1. Lewis’s Analysis of Modality......Page 76
2. Worlds in General......Page 84
3. Abstract Worlds......Page 95
1. Speaking About Things......Page 100
2. Entity-Essences......Page 105
3. K-Essences......Page 107
4. Property Entailment and the Core Analysis......Page 109
5. Analysis and Reduction......Page 112
6. Essentialism and Modality de re......Page 117
7. Essentialist Thought Experiments......Page 121
8. Canonical Examples......Page 124
5. Proper Names......Page 130
1. Contemporary Theories......Page 131
2. Revisiting Intuitions and the Great Divide......Page 145
3. Categories and Social Determination......Page 149
4. Categories Redux......Page 158
5. A Theory of Names with Bearers......Page 166
1. K-essences and the ‘Background’ of the Story......Page 176
2. The Fictional Stance......Page 180
3. A Case Study......Page 181
4. Necessary Existence and Nonexistence......Page 188
7. Natural Kind Terms......Page 196
References......Page 216
C......Page 220
E......Page 221
H......Page 222
M......Page 223
O......Page 224
P......Page 225
S......Page 226
V......Page 227
W......Page 228