Modality, Morality and Belief
Essays in Honor of Ruth Barcan Marcus

This collection of essays honours one of the most rigourous and iconoclastic of philosophical pioneers.

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (Edited by), Diana Raffman (Edited by), Nicholas Asher (Edited by)

9780521440820, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 January 1995

290 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.5 cm, 0.528 kg

"In an intersting and wide-ranging discussion, Parsons surveys various explanations and justifications provided by mathematicians and philosophers, concluding that ontological features do not play an essential role in the development of ZF, and need not be taken to be part of the literal truth about sets." Philip Bricker, Journal of Symbolic Logic

Modality, morality and belief are among the most controversial topics in philosophy and few philosophers have shaped these debates as deeply as Ruth Barcan Marcus. Inspired by her work, a distinguished group of philosophers explore these issues, refine and sharpen arguments and develop fresh positions on such topics as possible worlds, moral dilemmas, essentialism and the explanation of actions by beliefs. This collection honours one of the most rigourous and iconoclastic of philosophical pioneers.

Part I. Modality: 1. Ruth Barcan Marcus and the Barcan Formula Terence Parsons
2. The interaction of modality with quantification and identity Robert Stalnaker
3. S1 is not so simple Maxwell J. Cresswell
4. A problem in possible-world semantics David Kaplan
5. Senses of essence Kit Fine
6. Structuralism and the concept of set Charles Parsons
7. The Kant-Frege-Russell view of existence David Wiggins
Part II. Morality: 8. Moral dilemmas revisited Philippa Foot
9. Perspectival Guilt Patricia S. Greenspan
10. Instigating the unpredisposed Joel Feinberg
11. Marcus and the problem of nested deontic modalities Nuel Belnap and Paul Bartha
Part III. Belief: 12. Pierre, Saul, Ruth and Bob and a puzzle about belief Robert J. Fogelin
13. Closure and consistency Issac Levi
14. De Re Belief, action explanations and the essential indexical Ernest Sosa
15. T-sentences Scott Soames.

Subject Areas: Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ]