Counterfactual Antipresuppositions and Local Maximize Presupposition∗

(1) is a counterfactual conditional. Utterances of counterfactual conditionals are typically accompanied by the information that their antecedents are false. But what is the source of that information? Two arguments show that this information is neither an entailment nor a presupposition of the counterfactual. First, counterfactual conditionals can be used to argue for the falsity of their antecedents without begging the question, as in (2). This would be impossible if the first premise presupposed or entailed the conclusion. Second, counterfactual conditionals may be uttered when their antecedents are known to be true; the utterer of (3) does not suggest that no one has heard Demosthenes.