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Critical note on Williamson: A defence of the actualism‐possibilism debate
Author(s) -
Curtis Benjamin L.,
Noonan Harold W.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the philosophical forum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.134
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1467-9191
pISSN - 0031-806X
DOI - 10.1111/phil.12283
Subject(s) - metaphysics , pessimism , philosophy , epistemology , modal , chemistry , polymer chemistry
In his book Modal Logic as Metaphysics , Williamson argues that the traditional actualist‐possibilist debate should be abandoned as hopelessly unclear and that we should get on with the clearer contingentism‐necessitism debate. We think that Williamson’s pessimism is not warranted by the brief arguments he gives. In this paper, we explain why and provide a clear formulation of the traditional actualist‐possibilist debate.