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Full Idea
Blackburn asks of what theorists propose as underlying the necessity of a proposition, the question whether they themselves are conceived as obtaining of necessity or merely contingently.
Gist of Idea
If something underlies a necessity, is that underlying thing necessary or contingent?
Source
report of Simon Blackburn (Morals and Modals [1987], p.120-1) by Bob Hale/ Aviv Hoffmann - Introduction to 'Modality' 1
Book Ref
'Modality', ed/tr. Hale,B/Hoffman,A [OUP 2010], p.6
A Reaction
I've seen a reply to this somewhere: I think the thought was that a necessity wouldn't be any less necessary if it had a contingent source, any more than the father of a world champion boxer has to be a world champion boxer.
Related Idea
Idea 15103 Blackburn fails to show that the necessary cannot be grounded in the contingent [Cameron]
| 14629 | If we are told the source of necessity, this seems to be a regress if the source is not already necessary [Blackburn] |
| 14529 | If something underlies a necessity, is that underlying thing necessary or contingent? [Blackburn, by Hale/Hoffmann,A] |
| 2864 | The main objection to intuitionism in ethics is that intuition is a disguise for prejudice or emotion [Blackburn] |
| 2865 | Critics of prescriptivism observe that it is consistent to accept an ethical verdict but refuse to be bound by it [Blackburn] |
| 2866 | A true belief might be based on a generally reliable process that failed on this occasion [Blackburn] |
| 6451 | Visual sense data are an inner picture show which represents the world [Blackburn] |
| 11911 | Some philosophers always want more from morality; for others, nature is enough [Blackburn] |
| 23223 | The word 'respect' ranges from mere non-interference to the highest levels of reverence [Blackburn] |
| 23996 | Akrasia is intelligible in hindsight, when we revisit our previous emotions [Blackburn] |
| 19284 | Asserting a necessity just expresses our inability to imagine it is false [Blackburn] |