What's bad about primitiveness? Modality and possible worlds

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erk
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What's bad about primitiveness? Modality and possible worlds

Post by erk »

A primitive term is one which can't be defined fully reductively.
Using the example of Lewis' theory of possible worlds -
Lewis is a modal realist - he believes that every possible entity really exists in parallel universes spatiotemporally isolated from this one, because possible worlds provide such a useful way to analyse philosophical notions that the most straightforward thing to do is to accept them as the literal truth.

Postulating possible worlds as concrete entities allows us to reductively analyse modal terms such as possibility, contingency and necessity.

Otherwise, there's no other way to define "possibility" for example - what's possible is just what's possible.

It seems to me that what's bad about not being able to reductively analyse words like "possible" is far less than what's bad about randomly deciding to accept that every possible entity really exists in parallel universes.

Why should we go to so much effort to reductively analyse primitive terms?
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Re: What's bad about primitiveness? Modality and possible worlds

Post by Maxcady10001 »

That seems like a good definition of possibility to me.
But the most understandable refutation of this (at least for me) is occam's razor. Why should you assume the existence of all possible worlds as really existing when you could just assume one "actual" world? However I believe Lewis made the argument that we already engage in modal realism to some extent whenever we consider any kind of model.
When we consider a model, the assumptions of the model, make the model a possible world. The possible world is real, in the model. He also included the concepts of possible and necessary propositions. A proposition is possible if it is true for one world and necessary if true for all worlds. Now, in models there is a possible proposition, it is true for that world. So if there are possible propositions why shouldn't we consider possible worlds? Because a possible proposition is possible for all possible worlds, including our "actual" world.
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Re: What's bad about primitiveness? Modality and possible worlds

Post by erk »

What do you mean by a possible proposition is possible for all possible worlds, including our "actual" world?
A proposition is possible if it's true in some possible worlds (and necessary if true in all)
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Re: What's bad about primitiveness? Modality and possible worlds

Post by Maxcady10001 »

The way I used proposition is still valid if it's true for some possibe world's or only one.
I meant propositions that are true for models or possible world's can possibly be true for our "actual" world. By "actual" world, I meant what is apparently "real" to us, outside of any model or possible world. The proposition used for a model or possible world could possibly be true for us in a "real" world.
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