Conversation and Conditionals

I outline and motivate a way of implementing a closest world theory of indicatives, appealing to Stalnaker's framework of open conversational possibilities. Stalnakerian conversational dynamics helps us resolve two outstanding puzzles for a such a theory of indicative conditionals. The first pu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophical studies 2008-03, Vol.138 (2), p.211-223
Main Author: Williams, J. Robert G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Contrafactuals
Conversation
Counterfactuals
Education
Epistemology
Ethics
Extraterrestrial beings
Indicative conditionals
Metaphysics
Modal realism
Original Paper
Paradoxes
Phenomena
Philosophical logics. Philosophy of language
Philosophy
Philosophy of Language
Philosophy of Mind
Potassium
Presuppositions
Semantics
Syntactical consequents
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Summary:I outline and motivate a way of implementing a closest world theory of indicatives, appealing to Stalnaker's framework of open conversational possibilities. Stalnakerian conversational dynamics helps us resolve two outstanding puzzles for a such a theory of indicative conditionals. The first puzzle -- concerning so-called 'reverse Sobel sequences' -- can be resolved by conversation dynamics in a theoryneutral way: the explanation works as much for Lewisian counterfactuals as for the account of indicatives developed here. Resolving the second puzzle, by contrast, relies on the interplay between the particular theory of indicative conditionals developed here and Stalnakerian dynamics. The upshot is an attractive resolution of the so-called "Gibbard phenomenon" for indicative conditionals.
ISSN:0031-8116
1573-0883
DOI:10.1007/s11098-006-9032-5