Putting modal metaphysics first

Modal Metaphysics and the Everett Interpretation

Recent work on probability in the Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics yields a decision-theoretic derivation of David Lewis’ Principal Principle, and hence a general metaphysical theory of probability; part 1 is a discussion of this remarkable result. I defend the claim that the ‘subjective uncertainty’ principle is required for the derivation to succeed, arguing that it amounts to a th...

Rigid Designation, Direct Reference, and Modal Metaphysics

(Nov/03 draft, forthcoming in " Pacific Philosophical Quarterly " , comments to [email protected]) abstract In this paper I argue that questions about the semantics of rigid designation are commonly and illicitly run together with distinct issues, such as questions about the metaphysics of essence and questions about the theoretical legitimacy of the possible-worlds framework. I discuss in depth t...

The Methodology of Modal Logic as Metaphysics

Timothy Williamson’s Modal Logic as Metaphysics is, among much else, a detailed and complex defense of the metaphysical view he calls necessitism, the view that necessarily everything necessarily exists (is something), that although it may be a contingent matter how things are, what things there are is entirely a matter of necessity. The majority of contemporary modal metaphysicians reject this...

Metaphysics as the First Philosophy

And there are as many parts of philosophy as there are kinds of substance, so that there must necessarily be among them a first philosophy and one which follows this. (Meta. 1004a4-6.)

Putting the Poor First