Critical Note on Williamson: A defence of the Actualism-Possibilism Debate

Curtis, Benjamin L; Noonan, Harold

Abstract

In his book Modal Logic as Metaphysics (2013) Williamson argues that the traditional actualist-possibilist debate should be abandoned as hopelessly unclear and that we should get on with the clearer contingentism-necessitism debate. We think that Williamson's pessimism is not warranted by the brief arguments he gives. In this paper we explain why and provide a clear formulation of the traditional actualist-possibilist debate.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 11, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Jan 29, 2021
• Publication Date: 2021-03
• Deposit Date: Jan 8, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 30, 2023
• Journal: Philosophical Forum
• Print ISSN: 0031-806X
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 52
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 91-96
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/phil.12283
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5206080
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/phil.12283