The paper aims at showing that the problem of defining necessity in terms of contingency in weak normal systems may receive an answer in a contingency system K∆τ which is K∆ extended with an axiom for a propositional constant τ. It is proved by semantic tools that the fragment of K∆τ containing two necessity operators  and O is a system of a bimodal logic KD2 with deontic properties. §1. A wel...

Discrimination in social sense (e.g., against minorities and disadvantaged groups) is the subject of many laws worldwide, and it has been extensively studied in the social and economic sciences. We tackle the problem of determining, given a dataset of historical decision records, a precise measure of the degree of discrimination suffered by a given group (e.g., an etnic minority) in a given con...

It is commonly assumed that all propositions have modal profiles and therefore bear their truth-values either contingently or necessarily. In what follows, I argue against this commonly assumed view and in defense of amodalism, according to which certain true propositions are neither necessarily nor contingently true, but only true simpliciter. My defense of amodalism proceeds indirectly. I beg...

A formula is a contingent logical truth when it is true in every model M but, for some model M , false at some world of M . We argue that there are such truths, given the logic of actuality. Our argument turns on defending Tarski’s definition of truth and logical truth, extended so as to apply to modal languages with an actuality operator. We argue that this extension is the philosophically pro...

The article proposes an analytical perspective on artificial intelligence (AI) that can be fruitful in the sociology of work. practical logic new forms AI (connectionist AI) is described as interplay social and technical processes opening closing possibilities knowledge action. In order to develop this argument, it first shown which sense understood a contingency-generating technology socio-tec...

It is widely held that if an object a is identical (or non-identical) to an object b, then it is necessary that a is identical (non-identical) to b. This view is supported by an argument from Leibniz’s Law and by a popular conception of de re modality. On the other hand, there are good reasons to allow for contingent identity. Various alternative accounts of de re modality have been developed t...

Some natural properties have causal roles; call these ‘causal properties’. Dispositional essentialists think that some causal properties have their causal roles essentially. For the purposes of this paper, I treat dispositional essentialism (hereafter ‘DE’) as a claim about the properties of (ideal, completed, fundamental) science. If the basic ontology of completed science (hereafter ‘Physics’...

There has been considerable research suggesting ways to design foreign subsidiaries for multinational enterprises. Unfortunately, much of this research is fragmented and some is even contradictory. This study seeks to comprehensively integrate this research stream by distilling the extant literature around two key contingency factors: (1) governance environment of the host country, and (2) the ...