Questions tagged [possible-worlds]
The possible-worlds tag has no usage guidance.
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How many possible worlds does SDL need (at a minimum)?
The SEP article on deontic logic, in sec. 2.3, reads:
We assume that we have a set of possible worlds, W, and a relation, A, relating worlds to worlds, with the intention that Aij iff j is a world ...
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How do Leibniz' possible-worlds model and Heisenberg's view of microphysics relate to each other?
In his answer to a former question @IoannisPaizis presents a quote of Heisenberg from his book Physics and Philosophy
The atoms or elementary particles themselves are not as real; they
form a world ...
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How should one treat an inscrutable probability?
Suppose that you observe Alex drawing five straight Royal flushes in a poker game in his first five draws. Let’s call this event A). This happens on Tuesday.
Suppose, as a thought experiment, that you ...
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Can Everett's interpretation be used to undermine any inference to design? [duplicate]
Multiverse theories are used to undermine fine tuning. Per Tegmark, the many-worlds interpretation (MWI) of quantum mechanics is a theory of a multiverse, but this does not seem to have been Everett's ...
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Is it even possible to desire something we believe is impossible?
Is it even possible to desire something we believe is impossible? What does that mean, to have something that cannot exist as an intentional object of desire?
Nevertheless, people often talk about ...
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Does actualism imply moral nihilism?
Actualism is the view that only the actual is possible. Moral nihilism is the belief in the nonexistence of morality. My question is, does actualism imply moral nihilism? At least in my case, the ...
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Could a being be defined as such that its transworld identity is identical to its in-world identity?
I was reading through Collier[21], which is about Lewisian theism, alongside the SEP article on transworld identity, and have assumed that:
The concept of transworld identity (TI) is not necessarily ...
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Is it a fallacy to say that something is possible if not disproven?
If I cannot disprove god or fairies or space monkeys, does this mean that these theories are possible?
If it doesn’t mean that, and one cannot prove that they are possible or impossible, what is the ...
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Everything must have a cause?
In a possible reality, if something came into existence without something giving rise to it, the fact would be that , there was nothing stopping something from coming into existence without anything ...
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Computer Graphics Imagery (CGI) & Modality (Possibility)
The trend is obvious ... CGI is here to stay. Many movies wouldn't stand a chance in the box office sans computer generated images and I don't mean just the slew of superhero movies (DC & Marvel ...
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Is the notion of “possible” vacuous?
We use the term possible to often refer to events that don’t violate a certain model of reality and impossible to refer to events that do. A human being having ten fingers vs. a human being with five ...
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What is the definition of a possible world?
I recently asked if we can know whether other possible worlds exist. However, I should have asked first what the definition of a possible world is, for only then can we know whether other possible ...
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How can we test whether other possible worlds exist?
Philosophers talk a lot about possible worlds. I am one person who does not believe any other worlds except ours exist. But how can I know if I am right? How would one know if other possible worlds ...
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platinga's actualism and introduction of essences
I am reading Plantinga's "Actualism and Possible Worlds" and I am struggling to see why he needs to introduce his idea of essences to resolve the following issue:
The actualist holds that:
(...
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Where does the canon event theory of identity formation come from?
There is an idea in the new Spider-man movie Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, where spider-men through different dimensions have to deal with inter-dimensional problems. In it, one critical part ...
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A question about David Lewis's refutation of taking possibility as consistency
I’m reading a chapter from David Lewis’s counterfactuals. He says something which I’m confused about, wondering if any of you guys can explain what he's saying...
“ We might take…. ‘Possibly P’ [to ...
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Under what conceptions of God does it follow that we necessarily are in "the best of all possible worlds"?
My personal take on this question is that it would follow that we are living in "the best of all possible worlds" if God were a utilitarian, that is, if we viewed God as an agent making ...
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What is a “possible” event?
Things seem to happen or they don’t. If a dice rolls on 6, does this mean that it could have been possible for it to land on 1-5? We seem to differentiate this kind of event from an “impossible” kind ...
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Is Neil Barton's algebraic/ontological distinction equivalent to the actualist/possibilist distinction?
In, "Multiversism and Concepts of Set: How much
relativism is acceptable?" Neil Barton distinguishes between an ontological interpretation of set-theoretic multiverses as referents and an ...
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Why is "Water is not H2O" False in all possible worlds?
I am reading Chalmers' "Two dimensional semantics" and "Two dimensional argument against materialism" and a point is unclear: As per Kripke (1980), "Water is not H2O" is ...
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How be so sure that implications are bivalent? (An attempt to resolve paradoxes of material implication)
The material conditional, P→Q defined as ￢P∨Q, is usually thought not to match the usual linguistics, as seen by many paradoxes. The Wikipedia article gives few good examples. I tried to resolve them ...
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Can one determine the meaning and truth value of counterfactual statements without invoking the existence of possible worlds?
Usually, philosophers explain the meaning and truth value of counterfactual statements using possible world semantics. However, that approach requires one to accept the existence of possible worlds. ...
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How do philosophers answer the following question about a counterfactual notion of free will?
So let's assume that free will requires the ability to have done the opposite.
Suppose we abstract from the world (and from our mind) and can reproduce an event in the same conditions as given ...
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What is the relationship between possible worlds and a valuations?
A propositional formula is something like this, A&~B, which uses letters to represent propositions. The letters are called propositional variables.
Compare the following two sets of terminologies ...
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Is the multiverse standpoint in set theory "ideologically committed" to plural quantification over universes/axioms?
One of the ways in which Hamkins expresses the multiverse standpoint is as the assertion that there is no "absolute background concept of sets or even ordinals." He spells out examples of ...
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Epistemic access to possible worlds for David Lewis and empiricism
David Lewis believed that possible worlds are real and their existence are similar to actual world. Any world is causally and spatio-temporally disconnected from other worlds. David Lewis was an ...
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The intensionality of modal logic
What exactly makes modal logic intensional? In what follows, for illustration, I will focus on propositional modal logic (MPL).
I know that the modal operators in MPL are intensional since the truth ...
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Could our natural numbers be non-standard?
This question is related. It asks: "Can truths about the natural numbers vary across possible worlds?". One comment says: "Well, no, if they use same definitions and axioms about ...
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Is there anything constant is every conceivable world/situation?
Is there anything constant, in every world, video game, universe, location, time, dream, the Real world, etc.? I know about logical constants, but those are just fixed definitions of terms, they are ...
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Looking for help understanding modal logic and graph structure
I'm a novice to modal logic and only have a passing familiarity with classical logic. I started reading 'Modal Logic for Open Minds'. It is very readable, but then on page 16 the author introduces a ...
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Does Human Pride degrade Peace? [closed]
I've been thinking about this question, and I think the reason countries go to war with each other is for their own pride, people die for their own pride. So if the entire world is one country and we ...
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Is it the fact that we have language that causes us to believe in possible worlds?
I am not quite sure whether this belongs in Philosophy SE, but I couldn't think of a better SE, so I am posting it here. My question is, is it the fact that we have language that causes us to believe ...
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Cardinality of the logical space according to David Lewis
I just read an extract of David Lewis's Counterfactuals and he claims there in a footnote on page 90 that there are at least beth_2 possible worlds. He also claims in the very same footnote that "...
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If something is Possible is it therefore Necessary?
Does anybody agree on this:
“Given an infinite time Y, every possible event X needs to happen, right?”
From a mathematical point of view it seems OK to me, although depending on the idea we have of ...
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How should you live when you have options?
If you have the opportunity to earn money easily (for example just doing dropshipping, or selling oil reserve) which requires less self control and discipline. And the other is by doing difficult job (...
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Alternativeness... or not?
We recognize as an axiom that events in our reality can occur in different ways.
It is about facts, models that combine facts and our reactions.
I call it alternativeness.
Here I will not ask: whether ...
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Logical/mathematical (non-physical) arguments against simulation hypothesis?
So the Simulation Hypothesis, from what I've heard, is not scientifically testable because it is not falsifiable, which makes perfect sense to me and is the viewpoint I have always adopted.
Yet ...
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Stances on possible worlds
Modal realism is the belief that all possible worlds actually exist. Actualism is the belief that possible worlds don’t exist at all. What are some examples of modal-metaphysical views which try to ...
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Is there a Possible World in which Humeanism isn't true?
I'm an amateur philosopher, interested in the work of Ned Hall:
Mindscape podcast: Ned Hall on Possible Worlds and the Laws of Nature (Dec-2019)
PhilPapers: Humean Reductionism About Laws Of Nature (...
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State description in PWS
A very short question:
If, following Carnap, we can represent a possible world as a state description starting from a quantified language L, why does it make sense, following standard modal logic, to ...
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Propositions as set of possible worlds in FOL
In possible world semantics for propositional calculus, possible worlds are usually taken to be models for propositional formulas (the set of valuations in which a certain formula is true)
In first ...
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Can truths about the natural numbers vary across possible worlds?
The truths of logic are the same in all possible worlds. However, what about truths about natural numbers? Like, for instance, is there a world where there are only finitely many primes, or a world ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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