“Sweet Spots in Modal Metaphysics” – Stephen Yablo (MIT)
January 24, 2025 | 4:00PM – 6:00PM PT
Zoom
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Join us on January 24, 2025 for a virtual colloquium with Stephen Yablo, MIT. The talk will take place from 4:00PM – 6:00PM PT on Zoom.
Sweet Spots in Modal Metaphysics
De re modal plenitude holds that all transworld modal profiles are exemplified. Where this table sits, there are a bazillion other things categorically indiscernible from it but taking different paths through logical space. Five metaphysical puzzles are (re)examined through plenitudinarian spectacles. They’re to do with identity over time (the Ship of Theseus puzzle), identity across worlds (Chisholm’s paradox), how coincidents come by their different profiles (the grounding problem), things’ curious tendency to be found at their “modal sweet spot,” bang in the middle of their zone of tolerance (the centrality problem), and how properties definitive of a thing can be losable (the problem of contingent non-accidents). Plenitudinarianism is presented less as a panacea than a theoretical option not to be overlooked.
Stephen Yablo works in metaphysics, epistemology, philosophical logic, and the philosophy of language and math. Older papers are collected in Thoughts and Things (Oxford, 2009-10). Aboutness (Princeton, 2014) develops a truthmaker-based theory of sentential subject matter, and casts about for applications. He gave the Hempel Lectures at Princeton (2008), the Lockes at Oxford (2012), and the Whitehead Lectures at Harvard (2016). Recent work (some in progress/regress) includes “The Bandersnatches of Dubuque,” “Leverage: A Model of Cognitive Significance,” “Relevance without Minimality,” “Fine-Grained Evidence,” and “Tangled up in Grue.”
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