Premium
The Metaphysical Consequences of Counterfactual Skepticism
Author(s) -
Emery Nina
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
philosophy and phenomenological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1933-1592
pISSN - 0031-8205
DOI - 10.1111/phpr.12254
Subject(s) - counterfactual conditional , counterfactual thinking , epistemology , skepticism , commit , metaphysics , philosophy , philosophy of language , philosophy of mind , philosophy of science , semantics (computer science) , causation , order (exchange) , computer science , economics , finance , database , programming language
A series of recent arguments purport to show that most counterfactuals of the form if A had happened then C would have happened are not true. These arguments pose a challenge to those of us who think that counterfactual discourse is a useful part of ordinary conversation, of philosophical reasoning, and of scientific inquiry. Either we find a way to revise the semantics for counterfactuals in order to avoid these arguments, or we find a way to ensure that the relevant counterfactuals, while not true, are still assertible. I argue that regardless of which of these two strategies we choose, the natural ways of implementing these strategies all share a surprising consequence: they commit us to a particular metaphysical view about chance.