Producción CyT

Indexicalidad Y Realismo Modal

Artículo

Fecha:

1999

Editorial y Lugar de Edición:

UBA

Revista:

Cuadernos De Filosofia, vol. 45 (pp. 49-68) UBA

Resumen *

In this paper, I attempt to throw some light on modal realism. Since it is David Lewis who has put forward the best arguments for that position, I focus on his work. In the first, I point out that his approach does not provide an adequate account for the intuitive lack of symmetry between the actual and the possible. To begin with, I try to show that the strategy of appealing to both the spatio-temporal network and causality is not at all satisfactory. Secondly, I criticize the argument for modal realism that is based on theoretical benefits. Then, I defend the view that Lewis' indexical analysis of the concept of actuality does not satisfy his own criterion of acceptability: an analysis of actuality should account for the intuitions about our actual world. I claim that Lewis' objections to other positions can be raised against his own position. Finally, I conclude that, even though Lewis is right in claiming that actualist conceptions do not explain why the possible is not part of the actual, the realist conception fail to account for the special ontological status that we intuitively grant to our own world. Información suministrada por el agente en SIGEVA