Counterfactuals and Probability

AvMoritz Schulz

Inbunden, Engelska, 2017

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Beskrivning

Moritz Schulz explores counterfactual thought and language: what would have happened if things had gone a different way. Counterfactual questions may concern large scale derivations (what would have happened if Nixon had launched a nuclear attack) or small scale evaluations of minor derivations (what would have happened if I had decided to join a different profession). A common impression, which receives a thorough defence in the book, is that oftentimes we find it impossible to know what would have happened. However, this does not mean that we are completely at a loss: we are typically capable of evaluating counterfactual questions probabilistically: we can say what would have been likely or unlikely to happen. Schulz describes these probabilistic ways of evaluating counterfactual questions and turns the data into a novel account of the workings of counterfactual thought.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2017-02-02
Mått:152 x 223 x 19 mm
Vikt:424 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Antal sidor:248
Förlag:OUP OXFORD
ISBN:9780198785958

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Mer om författaren

Moritz Schulz studied Mathematics and Philosophy at the University of Hamburg before completing a BPhil at Oxford University. Shultz received his PhD from the Humboldt University of Berlin in 2011. Since then, he completed a post-doc at the University of Barcelona and acted as an assistant at the University of Tübingen before taking up his current role as junior professor at the University of Hamburg.

Recensioner i media

This is an exciting investigation of the semantics of counterfactuals that I highly recommend to both experts and people who want to catch up with recent results in the literature. It addresses both epistemic and metaphysical aspects of counterfactuals, and develops a novel refinement of the standard semantics. ... a well written and original study that merits reading from various perspectives.

Innehållsförteckning

1: Introduction 2: The Problem of Evaluating Counterfactuals 3: Counterfactual Chances 4: A Puzzle About Counterfactuals 5: Restriction and Modification 6: Counterfactuals and Arbitrariness 7: Applications 8: Triviality 9: Concluding Remarks