The Theory of Ontic Modalities / / Uwe Meixner.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DGBA Backlist Complete English Language 2000-2014 PART1
• VerfasserIn: Meixner, Uwe,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2013]; ©2006
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Language: English
• Series: Philosophische Analyse / Philosophical Analysis , 13
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (374 p.)

This book presents a comprehensive, non-model-theoretic theory of ontic necessity and possibility within a formal (and formalized) ontology consisting of states of affairs, properties, and individuals. Its central thesis is that all modalities are reducible to intrinsic (or "logical") possibility and necessity if reference is made to certain states of affairs, called "bases of necessity." The viability of this Bases-Theory of Modality is shown also in the case of conditionals, including counterfactual conditionals. Besides the ontological aspects of the philosophy of modality, also the epistemology of modality is treated in the book. It is shown that the Bases-Theory of Modality provides a satisfactory solution to the epistemological problem of modality. In addition to developing that theory, the book includes detailed discussions of positions in the philosophy of modality maintained by Alvin Plantinga, David Lewis, Charles Chihara, Graeme Forbes, David Armstrong, and others. Among the themes treated are: possibilism vs. actualism; the theory of essences; conceivability and possibility; the nature of possible worlds; the nature of logical, nomological, and metaphysical possibility and necessity.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Preface -- Contents -- 1 The Problem of Ontic Modalities -- 2 Actualism, Modal Realism, and Modal Epistemology -- 3 An Onto-Nomological Theory of Modality -- 4 States of Affairs, Modality, and the Bases-Theory of Necessity -- 5 The Theory of Conditionals in the Onto-Nomological Theory of Modality -- 6 Other Theories of Conditionals versus the Bases-Theory of Conditionals -- 7 The Onto-Nomological Theory of Modality Extended: Adding Properties and Individuals -- 8 Properties, Essences, and Actualism (Again) -- Bibliography -- Index -- Backmatter