Description
| Summary: | Charles Chihara gives a thorough critical exposition of modal realism, the philosophical doctrine that there exist many possible worlds of which the actual world--the universe in which we live--is just one. The striking success of possible-worlds semantics in modal logic has made this ontological doctrine attractive. Modal realists maintain that philosophers must accept the existence of possible worlds if they wish to have the benefit of using possible-worlds semantics to assess modal arguments and explain modal principles. Chihara challenges this claim, and argues instead for modality without worlds; he offers a new account of the role of interpretations or structures of the formal languages of logic.
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| Item Description: | This book grew out of the author's lectures given Mar. 1991 at the University of Notre Dame and some materials were given in courses and seminars at various institutions. |
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| Physical Description: | xii, 342 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. |
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| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (p. [329]-336) and index. |
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| ISBN: | 0198237677 |
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