Abstract
One of the aims of this book is to look at the metaphysics of possible worlds. We saw in the introduction that this requires consideration of two related issues: (i) What are possible words? (ii) Is there an empty possible world? In looking at the first question we are looking at the different accounts of possible worlds—Lewisian realism, ersatzism and so on. In looking at the second question I am looking at the discussions of metaphysical nihilism, the modal ontological arguments and so on. In this chapter I am drawing these two strands together in order to show how the position we hold on one of these issues affects the position we should hold on the other.
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Notes
Lewis, D. (1986). On the Plurality of Worlds. Oxford, Blackwell.
Simons, P. (1987). Parts: A Study in Ontology. Oxford, Clarendon Press.
Efird, D. and Stoneham, T. (2005). ‘Genuine modal realism and the empty world’. European Journal ofAnalytic Philosophy, 1 (1): 21–36.
Lycan, W. G. (1991). ‘Two–no, three–concepts of possible worlds’. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 91: 215–227.
Plantinga, A. (1979). ‘Actualism and possible worlds’. The Possible and the Actual. M. J. Loux (ed.) London, Cornell University Press.
Sanford, D. H. (2003). ‘Fusion confusion’. Analysis 63 (1): 1–4.
Divers, J. (1999). ‘A modal fictionalist result (Plurality of worlds hypothesis)’. Nous 33 (3): 317–346.
A related but different argument is given in Baldwin, T. (1998). ‘Modal fictionalism and the imagination’. Analysis, 58 (2): 72–75.
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© 2010 Geraldine Coggins
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Coggins, G. (2010). Possible Worlds. In: Could There Have Been Nothing?. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230295247_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230295247_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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