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Lewis Counterpart-Theoretic Model

Decent Essays

1. Lewis a. De re modality refers to the quantification of possibility and necessity claims in regards to the object or individual; rather than relying on a statement for quantification claims. To put this another way, when we make possibility and necessity claims we refer to the actual object rather than the statement itself. b. The problem of Transworld identity is it is difficult to refer to objects or individuals between worlds. To put this another way, objects or individuals between worlds are not identical, there can be minute differences characteristic of an alternate world. This is an issue when we try to refer to things across worlds because if objects or individuals are not identical then we cannot refer to an object in the actual …show more content…

Lewis (2015) suggests that a counterpart-theoretic model of de re modality is necessary for us to refer to objects across worlds. A counterpart is the most similar object from one world to another alternate world. Specifically, counterparts do not consider whole worlds but objects within the world; every object has a counterpart. Lewis would respond to the example about Dennis having coffee in one world and having tea in an alternate world by stating that this claims can be expressed though his counterpart-theoretic model. Lewis would consider this to be a possibility claim rather than a necessity claim. Therefore, he would reword the statement to be: Dennis might have had tea. Lewis would go on and try to formalize this statement. That is to say, if there exists x and y, x being a world, and y being a counterpart, then Wx and Iyw and Cyd and Tea(y). What this means is that, x is a world, y is in world x, y is a counterpart of Dennis, and the counterpart, y, had tea. This is how Lewis would analyze the example under his counterpart-theoretic …show more content…

The counterpart theory has a solution to the problem of Transworld identity. The trick that Lewis uses is by stating that the objects between worlds are different. For example, the counterpart of Dennis who had tea is a different object than the Dennis in the actual world who had the coffee. With attention to the problem of Transworld identity, objects or individuals need not to be identical for us to compare objects between worlds. Notably, the determination of what a counterpart is, depends on context. What this means is that, they operate for the function we want. De re modality claims are about counterparts of objects and not identical objects between worlds. Therefore, the counterpart-theoretic model would bypass the issue of Transworld

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