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Full Idea
The three sources of necessity - the identity of things, the natural order, and the normative order - have their own peculiar forms of necessity. The three main areas of human enquiry - metaphysics, science and ethics - each has its own necessity.
Gist of Idea
Each area of enquiry, and its source, has its own distinctive type of necessity
Source
Kit Fine (The Varieties of Necessity [2002], 6)
Book Ref
Fine,Kit: 'Modality and Tense' [OUP 2005], p.260
A Reaction
I would treat necessity in ethics with caution, if it is not reducible to natural or metaphysical necessity. Fine's proposal is interesting, but I did not find it convincing, especially in its view that metaphysical necessity doesn't intrude into nature.
9214 | Unsupported testimony may still be believable [Fine,K] |
9215 | Causation is easier to disrupt than logic, so metaphysics is part of nature, not vice versa [Fine,K] |
9216 | Each area of enquiry, and its source, has its own distinctive type of necessity [Fine,K] |