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Modality Wilson, Alastair University of Birmingham Modality Wilson, Alastair DOI: 10.1080/00048402.2011.592541 License: Other (please specify with Rights Statement) Document Version Early version, also known as pre-print Citation for published version (Harvard): Wilson, A 2011, 'Modality: Metaphysics, Logic and Epistemology', Australasian Journal of Philosophy, vol. 89, no. 4, pp. 755-756. https://doi.org/10.1080/00048402.2011.592541 Link to publication on Research at Birmingham portal Publisher Rights Statement: This is an Author's Original Manuscript of an article submitted for consideration in the Australasian Journal of Philosophy [copyright Taylor & Francis]; Australasian Journal of Philosophy is available online at http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00048402.2011.592541 General rights Unless a licence is specified above, all rights (including copyright and moral rights) in this document are retained by the authors and/or the copyright holders. The express permission of the copyright holder must be obtained for any use of this material other than for purposes permitted by law. •Users may freely distribute the URL that is used to identify this publication. •Users may download and/or print one copy of the publication from the University of Birmingham research portal for the purpose of private study or non-commercial research. •User may use extracts from the document in line with the concept of ‘fair dealing’ under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (?) •Users may not further distribute the material nor use it for the purposes of commercial gain. Where a licence is displayed above, please note the terms and conditions of the licence govern your use of this document. When citing, please reference the published version. Take down policy While the University of Birmingham exercises care and attention in making items available there are rare occasions when an item has been uploaded in error or has been deemed to be commercially or otherwise sensitive. If you believe that this is the case for this document, please contact [email protected] providing details and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate. Download date: 03. Oct. 2021 This is a preprint of a review published in Australasian Journal of Philosophy 89 (4): 755-756, 2011. The original publication is available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00048402.2011.592541 Modality: Metaphysics, Logic and Epistemology, eds. Bob Hale & Aviv Hoffman. Alastair Wilson Monash University This wide-ranging and sophisticated collection provides a snapshot of contemporary research on modality. The papers are drawn from presentations at conferences of the Arché modality project, based in St. Andrews between 2003 and 2005. There is a mixture of junior and senior authors, and of substantial and short papers; some of the contributions are accompanied by replies. A scholarly and useful introduction sets the tone. The focus throughout is on alethic, or ‘absolute’ modality, with the exceptions of Stephen Yablo’s paper on permissive modality and its relation to epistemic modality, and of Kit Fine’s contribution, which applies the notion of semantic necessity to debates about the proper form of a theory of meaning. The early chapters deal with logical and semantic issues, with papers by Robert Stalnaker on contingently-existing abstracta, by Ian Rumfitt on the nature of logical necessity, and by Timothy Williamson on the relationship between counterfactuals and modal operators. These debates soon give way to the cut- and-thrust of the general metaphysics and epistemology of modality. Several authors engage in metaphilosophical reflection on the state of the modality debate. Gideon Rosen makes a plea for ideological tolerance, defending the theoretical utility of a primitive hyperintensional notion of grounding. John Divers exhorts us to focus our inquiry around the question of the function of modal judgment. Scott Shalkowski rejects the Lewisian methodology of inference to the best explanation as a route to knowledge of the metaphysics of modality. Anna Sherratt diagnoses a general epistemological difficulty with modal anti-realism. And Scott Sturgeon and Dominic Gregory engage in searching assessments of the most familiar tool in the modal epistemologist’s toolbox, the inference from conceivability to possibility. A picture emerges of a vibrant subject, but also of a subject lacking a clear methodology. We have attained a good understanding of the logical and metaphysical commitments of the various views about modality. But endemic epistemological difficulties still systematically undermine attempts to establish consensus on big-picture questions. Consequently, in Modality we find defenders of views as different from one another as Siderian neo-conventionalism (the anti- realist view that our distinction between alethic necessity and contingency reflects no natural difference among propositions) and Finean essentialism (the realist view that facts about essences are fundamental, with modal facts derivative from them). In the philosophy of modality at least, the realism debate is alive and kicking. The arguments of this collection do much to advance it. .
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