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Paper   IPM / Philosophy / 14374
School of Analytic Philosophy
  Title:   Hale on the Absoluteness of Logical Necessity
  Author(s):  Hashem Morvarid
  Status:   Published
  Journal: Acta Analytica
  No.:  1
  Vol.:  32
  Year:  2017
  Pages:   1-11
  Supported by:  IPM
  Abstract:
Hale has argued that logical necessities are absolute in the sense that there is no competing kind of modality under which they may be false. In this paper, I argue that there are competing kinds of modality, which I call “essentialist modalities,” under which logical necessities may be false. Since it is counter-intuitive to say that logical necessities are not absolute, my argument, if correct, shows that Hale’s characterization of absolute necessity does not adequately capture the intuitive notion of absolute necessity. Then, a qualified version of Hale’s characterization of absolute necessity is proposed. On the qualified version, the absoluteness of logical necessities is no longer defeated by essentialist possibilities.

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