Expressivism Concerning Epistemic Modals

In this paper, a new argument for an expressivist account of epistemic modals is developed. The argument starts from a puzzle about epistemic modals that Seth Yalcin recently presented. Yalcin’s own solution to the puzzle is rejected and a better explanation is given which is based on expressivism concerning epistemic modals. Furthermore, two alleged problems for expressivism are addressed: firstly, it is discussed whether embeddings of epistemic modals pose a serious threat to expressivism, and secondly it is shown how expressivism can account for disagreements about statements containing epistemic modals. I. A Puzzle About Epistemic Modals Seth Yalcin recently argued that instances of the pattern