MoL-2011-11: Counterfactual Dependencies

MoL-2011-11: Christensen, Kasper Højbjerg (2011) Counterfactual Dependencies. [Report]

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Abstract

This thesis is concerned with developing an adequate semantics for
counterfactual conditionals.
A counterfactual conditional is standardly taken to be an expression
of the form ‘if it had been the case that ϕ, it would have been the
case that ψ’, where ϕ and ψ are sentences and ϕ furthermore expresses
something false. Now since expressions of this form are not
truth-functional in the standard sense, the task of coming up with an
adequate semantics for them has proven to be a somewhat difficult
affair. We will present some theories of counterfactuals and discuss
the problems that these have. Many of these theories agree that to
evaluate a counterfactual we need prior knowledge of certain
relationships in the world. We agree on this point, but we will
redefine what these relations are; namely generation relations where
we say that X and Y are in this relation when X will bring about Y ,
while remaining silent on whether Y will obtain when X does not.
We incorporate this into a dynamic setting where the meaning of a
sentence is an operation on the cognitive state of an agent. We also
draw a distinction between a counterfactual being true in an absolute
sense and a counterfactual being acceptable by an agent. Throughout
the thesis we will concern ourselves mostly with the latter notion and
propose that if one believes in such a thing as the truth-value of a
counterfactual, then this is to be defined as acceptability by a
certain idealized agent.

Item Type:	Report
Report Nr:	MoL-2011-11
Series Name:	Master of Logic Thesis (MoL) Series
Year:	2011
Date Deposited:	12 Oct 2016 14:38
Last Modified:	12 Oct 2016 14:38
URI:	https://eprints.illc.uva.nl/id/eprint/856

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