Norms and Necessity
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:21st Jul '20
Should be back in stock very soon
Claims about what is metaphysically necessary or possible have long played a central role in metaphysics and other areas of philosophy. Such claims are traditionally thought of as aiming to describe a special kind of modal fact or property, or perhaps facts about other possible worlds. But that assumption leads to difficult ontological, epistemological, and methodological puzzles. Should we accept that there are modal facts or properties, or other possible worlds? If so, what could these things be? How could we come to know what the modal facts or properties are? How can we resolve philosophical debates about what is metaphysically necessary or possible? Norms and Necessity develops a new approach to understanding our claims about metaphysical possibility and necessity: Modal Normativism. The Normativist rejects the assumption that modal claims aim to describe modal features or possible worlds, arguing instead that they serve as useful ways of conveying, reasoning with, and renegotiating semantic rules and their consequences. By dropping the descriptivist assumption, the Normativist is able to unravel the notorious ontological problems of modality, and provide a clear and plausible story about how we can come to know what is metaphysically necessary or possible. Most importantly, this approach helps demystify philosophical methodology. It reveals that resolving metaphysical modal questions does not require a special form of philosophical insight or intuition. Instead, it requires nothing more mysterious than empirical knowledge, conceptual mastery, and an ability to explicitly convey and renegotiate semantic rules.
Thomasson's brand of normativism is formally introduced with a structural methodology that highlights the historical problematics of early non-descriptivist assumptions and how she avoids some of these historical problematics by showing how her brand of modal normativism remains stable in embedded contexts to avoid the Frege-Geach expressivist problem of unasserted contexts. * Jason Wakefield, Avello Publishing Journal *
Norms and Necessity is an ambitious and important philosophical work, written in Thomasson's characteristically clear and lucid writing style. It is destined to have a huge impact not only on contemporary debates about modality, but also on our general self-understanding as philosophers. * Sybren Heyndels, Philosophical Quarterly *
This is an excellent book. Thomasson's articulation and defense of modal expressivism is a significant and novel contribution to the metaphysics of modality, and a must-read for anyone interested in the topic. * Karen Bennett, Rutgers University *
I read Norms and Necessity with high expectations. It managed to exceed them. It shows the same excellent qualities as Thomasson's earlier books - in other words, it is beautifully clear, very topical and well focussed, and always very well judged - but somehow to an even greater degree. It's an important book, and it will have a big impact. * Huw Price, University of Cambridge *
Thomasson is a gifted writer and philosopher, with a distinctive voice and a forceful message. Norms and Necessity is important and timely, making a strong contribution to one of philosophy's central problems. In support of that verdict I would say that it is the clearest and best-researched work on the nature of modality--the philosophical problems surrounding notions of necessity and possibility--to appear since Saul Kripke and David Lewis put modality back into the centre of the philosophical landscape some fifty years ago. It marks a radical departure from the tradition that they inspired, which makes it especially important. * Simon Blackburn, University of Cambridge (retired), and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill *
ISBN: 9780190098193
Dimensions: 147mm x 211mm x 25mm
Weight: 408g
252 pages