Skip to main content
Log in

Partition and revision: The semantics of counterfactuals

  • Published:
Journal of Philosophical Logic Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Conclusion

The last section made it clear that an analysis which at first seems to fail is viable after all. It is viable if we let it depend on a partition function to be provided by the context of conversation. This analysis leaves certain traits of the partition function open. I have tried to show that this should be so. Specifying these traits as Pollock does leads to wrong predictions. And leaving them open endows counterfactuals with just the right amount of variability and vagueness.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Bibliography

  • Burgess, J. P.: 1979, Quick Completeness Proofs for Some Logics of Conditionals, manuscript, Princeton University.

  • Klein, W.: 1979, Local Deixis in Route Directions, to appear in R. J. Jarvella and W. Klein (eds.), Speech, Place, Action. Studies of Language in Context, Academic Press.

  • Kratzer, A.: 1977, ‘What ‘Must’ and ‘Can’ Must and Can Mean’, Linguistics and Philosophy 1, 337–355.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, D. K.: 1981, ‘Ordering Semantics and Premise Semantics for Counterfactuals’, Journal of Philosophical Logic, this issue.

  • Pollock, J. L.: 1976, Subjunctive Reasoning, D. Reidel, Dordrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rescher, N.: 1973, The Coherence Theory of Truth, Clarendon Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Veltman, F.: 1976, Prejudices, Presuppositions and the Theory of Conditionals, Amsterdam Papers in Formal Grammar, 1.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kratzer, A. Partition and revision: The semantics of counterfactuals. J Philos Logic 10, 201–216 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00248849

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00248849

Keywords

Navigation