On Reducing the Number of Possible Worlds


Συγγραφέας: Norman Swartz


Norman Swartz: On Reducing the Number of Possible Worlds (html, 6K)
He proceeds by posing several questions of the form,"What would the world be like if everything of such and such a sort were instead of so and so a sort?" In each case he shows that "the world would be exactly as it is."[p. 203]. For each question posed, there is an infinity fold reduction in the number of possible worlds. Thereupon, Wilson concludes the section of his paper devoted to modalities by stating: "There must be more reductions. … At any rate these reductions seem to me to be sufficiently striking to justify us in at least conjecturing that there is only one possible world."[p. 212].