From Physical to Metaphysical Necessity

The Metaphysical Necessity of Natural Laws

In this paper I will defend the thesis that natural laws are metaphysically necessary, i.e. obtain in every possible world. Metaphysical necessity and possibility are the unrestricted modalities in the semantical interpretation of the modal logic system S5, which I adopt in this paper. I shall defend the following definition of a law of nature: (D 1) L is a natural law if and only if (i) L obta...

Physical and Metaphysical Counterfactuals

In a previous publication I showed that counterfactuals grounded in decision making can be given interpretation in terms “imaging” – a process of “mass-shifting” among possible worlds. This paper elaborates on this interpretation and shows the converse: imaging can be given an interpretation in terms of a stochastic decision policy in which agents choose actions with certain probabilities. This...

Peacocke’s Epiphany: A Possible Problem for Semantic Approaches to Metaphysical Necessity

The will: from metaphysical freedom to normative functionalism.

Free will is regarded by some as the most and by others as the least relevant concept for criminal responsibility. Contributions from religious and philosophical thinkers over the classical and medieval Christian eras demonstrate that, despite the passionate and historically consequential debates over the meaning of "freedom," the unifying theme that joined the will with the intellect remained ...

A Formal Theory of Physical Necessity

A system HW of normal modal logic, developed by R. Bigelow & R. Pargetter is presented. Some formal issues concerning the system are examined, such as completeness, number of distinct modalities and relations to other systems. Some philosophical topics are also discussed. The Authors interpret the system HW as the system of physical (nomic) modalities. It is questioned, whether or not the syste...