I abbreviate 'Counterfactual Conditional Statements' to CCS and 'Material Conditional Statements' to MCS.
Source: p 338, A Concise Introduction to Logic (12 Ed, 2014), by Patrick J. Hurley
Subjunctive conditionals are often called counterfactual conditionals because their
antecedents are typically false
.
1. Why does the quote above emphasise the falsity of CCS's Antecedents? MCS can also have false antecedents; so what? What differs? For example:
2. If E is a rare element, then E is costly.
3. If E were a rare element, then E would be costly.
Most physical objects are NOT rare elements; so both 2's and 3's antecedents are false.