From modal fallacies to a new argument for fatalism

Abstract Do incompatibilist arguments, like some fatalist arguments, rest on modal fallacies? If Westphal (2012) is right, then one popular argument for incompatibilism van Inwagen’s “First Formal Argument” does rest on a modal fallacy. Similarly, Warfield (2000) claims that the standard modal formulation of the master argument for incompatibilism is a modal fallacy. Here, I refute both claims. Contra Westphal, I show that the mistake in van Inwagen’s "First Formal Argument" is no modal fallacy. After that, I argue that Warfield’s charge of modal fallacy can be easily avoided by using a plausible principle concerning actuality. Then, I show that this allows one to put forward a fairly simple argument for fatalism (the thesis that we aren’t able to do otherwise from what we actually do).

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: MERLUSSI,PEDRO
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: UNICAMP - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Centro de Lógica, Epistemologia e História da Ciência 2019
Online Access:http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-60452019000300086
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