What 'if'? A Modal Analysis of Indicative Conditionals

如果什么？

• 批准号: 2284913
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Glasgow
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2284913
• 关键词: What; Modal; Analysis; Indicative; Conditionals

Almost all philosophers use the material interpretation of 'if' such that indicative conditionals are true given any combination of subsentential truth-values except a true antecedent and false consequent. Most, however, do so with a heavy heart - many indicative conditionals that are seemingly false (such as 'If there is liquid water on the moon's surface, the moon will explode') are true on this interpretation (given that their antecedents are false).Does the indicative conditional, therefore, imply a modal relationship between antecedent and consequent? This is my main research question, and I will be defending an affirmative answer. To do so, I will be aiming to give an account of what it would take for such a modal relationship to obtain, and how it would govern the behaviour of the phenomena in question. I will also draw comparisons to the subjunctive conditional to determine whether its modal analysis can help us understand the modality of indicative conditionals. Furthermore, I will ask whether this view coheres with our understanding of the scientific method. Plausibly, the paradigm case of the indicative conditional is the statement of empirical law; hence, theory of one can perhaps inform theory of the other.

几乎所有的哲学家都使用对“如果”的物质解释，即在给定任何子句真值的组合情况下，指示性条件句都是真的，除了真的前件和假的后件。然而，大多数人都怀着沉重的心情这样做--许多看似错误的指示性条件句(例如，如果月球表面有液态水，月球将爆炸)在这种解释下是正确的(鉴于它们的前置条件是错误的)。因此，指示性条件句是否暗示了先行和结果之间的情态关系？这是我的主要研究问题，我将为肯定的答案辩护。为了做到这一点，我将致力于讲述如何才能获得这种模式关系，以及它将如何管理所讨论的现象的行为。并将其与虚拟条件句进行比较，以确定其情态分析是否能帮助我们理解指示性条件句的情态。此外，我要问的是，这一观点是否与我们对科学方法的理解一致。看似合理的是，指示性条件的范型情况是经验法则的陈述；因此，其中一种理论或许可以为另一种理论提供借鉴。