Questions tagged [possible-worlds]
The possible-worlds tag has no usage guidance.
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Is my name a rigid designator if I had an identical twin in a possible world?
In examples I have read defining the term "rigid designator," proper names are used as an example, e.g. Aristotle vs the author of the Nicomachean Ethics. I could well be overanalyzing what ...
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2answers
337 views
Why are some things considered “impossible” even in other universes?
For example, I often hear that life could not develop in a universe where the fundamental constants were even slightly changed, or where certain physical laws were different. But if we're dealing with ...
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4answers
242 views
Computer vs brain in many-worlds interpretation of QM
Assume that the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is true.
A classical computer that is modeled on the Turing machine is designed to perform exactly the same computation in each of the ...
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23 views
What are David Lewis' perfectly natural properties?
I have read a few things on David Lewis either his papers and SEP entry etc. unfortunately I still struggle to understand lots of concepts from this philosopher. First, what are the perfectly natural ...
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1answer
110 views
Are there set-theoretical problems with modal metaphysics?
I'm trying to learn about modal logic and the metaphysics of modality, and there's something
that has been bugging me about what I've read so far: are there set-theoretical issues with supposing we ...
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2answers
236 views
Could there be a universe where the concept of order and logic and numbers and objects and space and time don't exist?
Could there be a universe where the concept of order and logic and numbers and objects and space and time don't exist ? This would preclude math as we know it. Maybe there is something better than ...
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3answers
174 views
How does one determine if killing an evil creature is an evil act?
I wanted to ask you in my D&D game, we fought some goblins. They attacked us first. We killed most of them; my character gave the rest a chance to surrender and said he may let them go. He ...
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3answers
125 views
Is there any philosophy which proposes that whatever you believe or imagine is true or exists?
Every day, we have conflicts with almost everyone about what we think and what we believe (there are religious conflicts, conflicts of opinions...). Also, there are people who think about alternative ...
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1answer
159 views
what is meaning of accessibility of possible worlds?
I have a question about the notion of possibility in modal logic.
There are systems and worlds with this notion.
They say that a world w1 is accessible to an other world w2 if and only if for any true ...
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1answer
110 views
Having S5 system Why we need to use WPSR in Gale Pruss New cosmological arguement?
As you know Gale_ Pruss improved The cosmological argument using WPSR instead of Strong PSR.
They in their 1999 article said if it be possibly that there be a God who freely created the world using ...
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0answers
35 views
Does denying the Limit Assumption in counterfactual logic lead to contradiction?
According to the similarity semantics for counterfactuals, a counterfactual A > C is true iff on the most similar class of worlds to the actual world (or any given world the counterfactual's truth ...
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2answers
123 views
What is Robert Nozick alluding to by a āvast generalizationā of Feynmanās path integral?
I was reading a book from the philosopher Robert Nozick (Invariances: The Structure of the Objective World), and there was something that confused me.
Around page 159 he argues that every logically ...
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2answers
185 views
What is the procentual probability that we live in the objective reality independent of our consciousness rather than in some virtual reality?
I am aware than it is impossible to prove anything in real life. Therefore we can't prove that the picture of the reality we are percieving through our senses is a subjective picture of an objective ...
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0answers
35 views
Did Carnap propose some kind of Modal Realism?
I have read in several pages that Rudolf Carnap, just as David Lewis (The creator of Modal Realism philosophical hypothesis) proposed that every logical proposition exists as a universe
But is this ...
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2answers
73 views
David Lewis and naturalism
I am studying Lewis and I am wondering what are the cornerstones of his philosophical perspective. In particular, I am wondering if Lewis is a naturalist like his supervisor Quine.
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62 views
Can a Rigid Designator still exist if there is only one possible world?
According to Kripke, a rigid designator is a pronoun (but not all pronouns are rigid designators) and they pick out the same unique individual in each possible world. I understand this, however, if ...
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125 views
Modal logics - philosophical paradoxes using modeling by possible worlds
I'm searching for "paradoxes" in classical modal logics, meaning lines of reasoning which give a counterintuitive conclusion if performed in classical logic, which can be modelled by the (semantical) ...
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1answer
276 views
Is there any physics-model version of Tegmark's hypothesis?
Tegmark's mathematical universe hypothesis is very interesting (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_universe_hypothesis) but it has virtually no support among physicists because it is too ...
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186 views
Is it possible to mathematically define a hypercomputer-universe where things that could not be computed by it could exist? [duplicate]
There are a few physicists that propose that the universe is a hypercomputer. One example is Roger Penrose, who, basing in his quantum interpretation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
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102 views
Propositions that can't be used to distinguish possible worlds
Are there known ways of formalizing the notion of propositions that can't be targeted by counterfactuals in a coherent way? Or of propositions that are outside the scope of the framework in question?
...
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4answers
458 views
Can many worlds interpretation have universes with different laws?
The Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics is classified by Max Tegmark as a level-3 multiverse hypothesis. This means that in the universes that it will predict, there could be different ...
3
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1answer
184 views
How does this anthropic principle argument from Schopenhauer make any sense?
According to a blog post This is what another universe looks like, "in Arthur Schopenhauer's 1844 work "Von der Nichtigkeit und dem Leiden des Lebens", he argues that our world must be the worst of ...
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130 views
Can Schmidhuber's hypothesis reproduce all types of universes? And Wheeler's it from bit? Or Weizsäcker's ur-theory?
I found a paper that talked about paraconsistent logic systems (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraconsistent_logic) and trivialist systems (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivialism) and the ...
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1answer
141 views
Does Tegmark himself include paraconsistent mathematical structures in his mathematical multiverse hypothesis?
Tegmark postulates in his hypothesis that all possible mathematical structures would exist. But does he include also possible mathematical structures described by other types of logic like ...
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2answers
640 views
Did David Deutsch really disprove the Simulation Hypothesis?
In The Fabric of Reality (1997) by David Deutsch, he says:
Imagine a computer built to render every possible Virtual Reality.
Suppose all possible environments produced by this generator can be
...
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2answers
447 views
Does Tegmark's Mathematical Universe hypothesis allow existence of alternative mathematics?
Tegmark's mathematical multiverse hypothesis assumes that all mathematical structures exist as universes
But do you know whether his hypothesis also allows/accept universes described by other types ...
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1answer
408 views
Can possible-but-non-actual objects have accidental properties?
The modal logic I am considering is the "Simplest Quantified Modal Logic" which combines first-order predicate logic with identity, with S5 in the most straightforward way, described here and slightly ...
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10answers
458 views
How could we get a world where only impossible things happen? [closed]
Imagine a universe where 1+1=3. This contradiction would trigger the effects of the principle of explosion, and thus, literally everything (possible and impossible things) could happen. If we lived in ...
4
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1answer
243 views
Is essentialism compatible with naturalism?
I am not an expert and I cannot understand why essentialism is incompatible with naturalism? Why scientific laws cannot describe essential properties of objects?
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2answers
192 views
What's the difference between logical modalities and physical modalities?
I am just wondering what's the difference between the two. I would say that there is something different, but honestly I can't define what it is exactly. What do you think?
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0answers
27 views
What is the Lange's viewpoint on laws of nature?
I am just wondering what is the Lange's philosophical perspective on laws of nature and what line of thought he follows in the contemporary debate.
4
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1answer
137 views
Do Alexius Meinong's impossible worlds describe all impossible worlds/things? [duplicate]
Does his impossible worlds category include (and can describe) literally all impossible things/worlds?
Inconsistencies, paradoxes, impossible solutions to problems (and impossible problems); really ...
5
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1answer
251 views
Why can we not reduce necessity to analyticity?
Why canāt we eliminate talk of necessity and possible worlds, for talk of analyticity and (non-modal) logical consistency? Has there been any attempt in recent times to do this? I'm not 100% sure, but ...
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5answers
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If we imagine a world that functions without causality, how absurd could it be?
If we assume that there's a universe that is devoid of causality, and if we assume that it isn't eternally static, would that mean that everything can happen because there are no reasons inhibiting ...
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7answers
341 views
Is there an idea of non-spatial reality in philosophy?
Our world is spatial. In particular there are 3 dimensions and we can measure lengths of objects in either of them.
However, when thinking about metaphysics I came to the conclusion that there might ...
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2answers
520 views
How does the concept of the 'virtual' (Deleuze) relate to 'counterfactuals' (Lewis)?
We read:
"[...] Deleuze will reject the notion of the possible in favor of that of the virtual. Rather than awaiting realization, the virtual is fully real; what happens in genesis is that the ...
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3answers
354 views
Ontological status of Axiom of Choice
Mathematical facts are necessary truths, either in a Platonic sense or by way of axioms. In the latter sense I mean that the Peano Axioms prove that 2+3=5, for example.
In other words, "PA āØ 2+3=5"...
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2answers
131 views
circularity of possibility defined over possible worlds
I have just checked similar questions that have been asked(and answered) before but I am still confused. How is it that the notion of possibility defined over as being True in some possible world not ...
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1answer
196 views
How to valuate (assign truth values to) a formula in modal logic (Kripke model)
A total novice here, and exasperated at that. I can translate natural language statements into formulae of modal logic, but their valuation in Kripke model seems elusive, as I'm simply unsure how to ...
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1answer
103 views
Truth that requires two possible worlds not causally linked
There is a clear example I have in mind of a modal transformer. The primary winding is in possible world, W1. The secondary winding is in possible world, W2. W1 and W2 are not causally linked in any ...
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3answers
91 views
What is the theory that existence, life, and/or consciousness arise simply because all possibilities must be exhausted, and this is one of them?
I distinctly recall reading a Wikipedia page listing multiple theories on the origin of existence itself. One in particular, described in the title, was fascinating and came to mind recently, but I ...
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4answers
277 views
Why does it matter if we live in “the best of all possible worlds”?
We can formalize the argument in this way:
There is good and evil.
The good tries with all its power to prevent the evil from doing more evil (otherwise the good wouldn't be the good).
A possible ...
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1answer
126 views
What is the explanatory power of Possible World Semantics?
What kind of problems is PWS particularly suited that e.g. FOL couldn't address? I'm just wondering when is a good time to use PWS and for what kinds of questions.
Thanks!
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207 views
In what sense are mathematical relations necessary?
I just stumbled upon the following statement:
(1) The number of discovered chemical elements is 118. Take the sentence "The number of chemical elements is necessarily greater than 100". Again, ...
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132 views
Real impossible worlds
What is the name of a/the metaphysic that affirms the reality of all worlds including impossible worlds?
Actualism denies the reality of all non-actual worlds, possibilism affirms the reality of all ...
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1answer
91 views
Are analytic propositions always vacuously true?
In a possible world where there are no bachelors is the proposition "bachelors are unmarried" vacuously true? Or is it tautologically true and you would then need to quantify bachelors as "all ...
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1answer
269 views
Does semantic externalism imply modal realism?
Semantic externalism, or more broadly externalism about mental content, is the idea that propositions, intentions, attitudes, etc. derive their meaning from the external world as opposed to internally ...
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1answer
251 views
Consistency in Modal Metaphysics
I read this article Modal Metaphysics weeks ago, but one thing that struck and perplexed me was the definition of consistency offered in this article. According to this article, it seems that one ...
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1answer
107 views
Is there any way to represented nested modalities in alethic modal logic?
It is possible to represent simple statements involving possibility and necessity in alethic modal logic and possible world semantics. But consider a statement like "It is possible that it is ...
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1answer
487 views
Is there anyone who believes that all modal statements are meaningless or trivial?
It is often useful to interpret statements in various modal logics using possible-world semantics. For instance "it is necessary that P" means "P is true in all possible worlds", "it is possible that ...
