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| The Agentive Modalities | |
| Συγγραφέας: John Maier John Maier: The Agentive Modalities (pdf, 32 pages) When we speak of possibility, we speak in two ways.  We sometimes speak, especially if we  are  philosophers,  of  whether  it  is  possible  that  a  certain  situation  obtain,  such  as whether it is possible that there be talking donkeys, or that there be beings physically like ourselves  who  lack  consciousness.    But  we  also  sometimes  speak  of  whether  a  certain outcome is possible for a certain agent, such as whether it is possible for a golfer to make a putt, or for an omnipotent being to change the laws of nature.  We ought not lay much weight on this linguistic fact, which may be merely an accident of language.  But it does offer a concise way of stating the thesis of this essay.  The thesis is that possibility for is irreducible to possibility that.  Facts about what agents can do cannot be fully reduced to other modal notions.  An adequate account of possibility requires appeal to a species of possibility that is fundamentally agentive. | |
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