A Purely Recombinatorial Puzzle. (18th August 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Fritz, Peter
• Is Part Of: Noûs. Volume 51:Number 3(2017:Sep.)
• Page Start: 547
• Page End: 564
• Publication Date: 2016-08-18
• Subjects: Philosophy -- Periodicals; 100
• DOI: 10.1111/nous.12172
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0029-4624

Abstract

Abstract: A new puzzle of modal recombination is presented which relies purely on resources of first‐order modal logic. It shows that naive recombinatorial reasoning, which has previously been shown to be inconsistent with various assumptions concerning propositions, sets and classes, leads to inconsistency by itself. The context sensitivity of modal expressions is suggested as the source of the puzzle, and it is argued that it gives us reason to reconsider the assumption that the notion of metaphysical necessity is in good standing.