: Modal essentialism holds that some x is essentially F if and only if at every possible world at which x exists, x is F . This view entails (ignoring the case of extreme essentialism) that distinct possible worlds can represent de re (singular) possibilities for the same individual. In the literature we find haecceitist and anti-haecceitist explanations of de re representation. The aim of this paper is to analyse which explanations of de re representation are consistent with genuine (nontrivial, objective) and plausible variants of modal essen-tialism. As I demonstrate, only moderate haecceitism meets this criterion. However, its weakness lies in its inability to account for intuitions about the variability of our modal judgments. In contrast, extreme haecceitism and moderate anti-haecceitism (modelled on qualitative counterpart theory) have the advantage of accommodating both essentialist and variability intuitions, provided both views are supplemented with a notion of quasi-essentiality.
In this paper, by a de re modal logic of terms, we mean a set of tautologies determined by a given semantics. We present a comprehensive study of several such semantics. First, we analyse semantics with a natural interpretation of de re modal propositions. We use the Johnson–Thomason models, but reject their four a...
A. Pietruszczak· Studia Logica: An Internatio...· 0 citations
It is generally believed that the law of excluded middle and the law of (non-)contradiction do not apply to Jan Łukasiewicz’s
Ł
3
, and many attempts have been made to resolve the issue. Based on the “Interpretation with Hidden Variables” within the framework of the
STRF
(Special Theory of Relativity o...
Lian-Zhang Xu, Xiao-Long Wan· Humanities and Social Scienc...· 0 citations
In this paper I discuss an initially very plausible principle about metaphysical explanation, which has recently been explicitly defended. Suppose some q metaphysically explains the metaphysical necessity of p. Does q then also metaphysically explain p’s truth? The principle at issue, call it ‘(NT)’, gives an affirmati...
In this paper I present a novel observation on reciprocal equatives (henceforth, RE) in Mandarin: a reciprocal
equative, when embedded under a necessity modal or a predicate of desire, gives rise to an unexpected,
at-least-equal-to
interpretation (henceforth, ≥-interpretation). I show that the meaning of a modal...
I. Hsieh· International Journal of Chi...· 0 citations
The article is devoted to the problem of complexity, appealing to which is a common argument used by theorists and practitioners to justify failures in their endeavors. In such cases, complexity is presented as an objective property of an object, its ontological parameter. The apology for complexity has three important...
S. G. Chukin· Manuscript· 0 citations
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