The Logic of Contingent Actuality
Current orthodoxy in modal logic and metaphysics has it that actuality is non-contingent in the following sense: for all p, if actually, p, then necessarily, actually, p. Call this thesis (Actuality) Necessitism and its negation (Actuality) Contingentism. Thus, according to Contingentism, there is a...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Michigan Publishing
2024-05-01
|
| Series: | Ergo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article/id/5713/ |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1850196613744558080 |
|---|---|
| author | Martin Glazier Stephan Krämer |
| author_facet | Martin Glazier Stephan Krämer |
| author_sort | Martin Glazier |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Current orthodoxy in modal logic and metaphysics has it that actuality is non-contingent in the following sense: for all p, if actually, p, then necessarily, actually, p. Call this thesis (Actuality) Necessitism and its negation (Actuality) Contingentism. Thus, according to Contingentism, there is at least one proposition p which is actually true but which could have been actually false. In another paper, one of us (Glazier 2023) has recently defended Contingentism. The present paper explores the logic of actuality under Contingentism. After informally introducing Contingentism and outlining what we take to be the main motivations for accepting it, we consider how contingent actuality should be taken to be. We argue that the nature, or essence, of actuality imposes certain limits on the extent to which actuality could have been different, and these then inform our view of the logic of actuality. Turning to the formal study of the logic of contingent actuality, we specify a formal language and a possible world semantics for that language and distinguish a number of natural notions of validity and consequence to which it gives rise. We present axiomatizations of the different resulting logics and examine the variety of iterated modalities in our systems. We establish soundness and completeness results. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-9908c4f31f844bb682ccc91b7ca07e05 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2330-4014 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-05-01 |
| publisher | Michigan Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ergo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy |
| spelling | doaj-art-9908c4f31f844bb682ccc91b7ca07e052025-08-20T02:13:24ZengMichigan PublishingErgo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy2330-40142024-05-0111010.3998/ergo.5713The Logic of Contingent ActualityMartin Glazier0Stephan Krämer1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1783-8742Philosophy, University of HamburgPhilosophy, University of HamburgCurrent orthodoxy in modal logic and metaphysics has it that actuality is non-contingent in the following sense: for all p, if actually, p, then necessarily, actually, p. Call this thesis (Actuality) Necessitism and its negation (Actuality) Contingentism. Thus, according to Contingentism, there is at least one proposition p which is actually true but which could have been actually false. In another paper, one of us (Glazier 2023) has recently defended Contingentism. The present paper explores the logic of actuality under Contingentism. After informally introducing Contingentism and outlining what we take to be the main motivations for accepting it, we consider how contingent actuality should be taken to be. We argue that the nature, or essence, of actuality imposes certain limits on the extent to which actuality could have been different, and these then inform our view of the logic of actuality. Turning to the formal study of the logic of contingent actuality, we specify a formal language and a possible world semantics for that language and distinguish a number of natural notions of validity and consequence to which it gives rise. We present axiomatizations of the different resulting logics and examine the variety of iterated modalities in our systems. We establish soundness and completeness results.https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article/id/5713/modal logicactualitycontingency |
| spellingShingle | Martin Glazier Stephan Krämer The Logic of Contingent Actuality Ergo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy modal logic actuality contingency |
| title | The Logic of Contingent Actuality |
| title_full | The Logic of Contingent Actuality |
| title_fullStr | The Logic of Contingent Actuality |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Logic of Contingent Actuality |
| title_short | The Logic of Contingent Actuality |
| title_sort | logic of contingent actuality |
| topic | modal logic actuality contingency |
| url | https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article/id/5713/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT martinglazier thelogicofcontingentactuality AT stephankramer thelogicofcontingentactuality AT martinglazier logicofcontingentactuality AT stephankramer logicofcontingentactuality |