Single Idea 13853

[catalogued under 10. Modality / B. Possibility / 8. Conditionals / a. Conditionals]

Full Idea

The mistake philosophers have made, in trying to understand the conditional, is to assume that its function is to make a statement about how the world is (or how other possible worlds are related to it), true or false, as the case may be.

Gist of Idea

It is a mistake to think that conditionals are statements about how the world is

Source

Dorothy Edgington (Do Conditionals Have Truth Conditions? [1986], 1)

Book Reference

'A Philosophical Companion to First-Order Logic', ed/tr. Hughes,R.I.G. [Hackett 1993], p.28


A Reaction

'If pigs could fly we would never catch them' may not be about the world, but 'if you press this switch the light comes on' seems to be. Actually even the first one is about the world. I've an inkling that Edgington is wrong about this. Powers!