A Philosophical Guide to Conditionals
Jonathan Bennett
Abstract
Conditionals are of two basic kinds, often called ‘indicative’ and ‘subjunctive’. This book expounds and evaluates the main literature about each kind. It eventually defends the view of Adams and Edgington that indicatives are devices for expressing subjective probabilities, and the view of Stalnaker and Lewis that subjunctives are statements about close possible worlds. But it also discusses other views, e.g. that indicatives are really material conditionals, and Goodman's approach to subjunctives.
Keywords: Adams, conditionals, Edgington, Goodman, indicative conditionals, Lewis, material conditionals, metaphysics, philosophy of language, possible worlds, probability, Stalnaker, subjunctive
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2003 | Print ISBN-13: 9780199258871 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: November 2003 | DOI:10.1093/0199258872.001.0001 |
