Possible and Impossible Worlds: Toward an Adequate Theory

Contemporary analytic philosophy abounds with talk of possible worlds. But what are they? Should we believe in them? And what would an impossible world be? Could there be any reason for thinking they exist? This book critically investigates the usefulness of both possible and impossible worlds as tools for analyzing various philosophical concepts. After a discussion of the nature of such worlds, the author argues extensively for the claim that we do in fact have reason to adopt analyses that appeal to worlds of both varieties. However, the sorts of impossible worlds that are alleged to exist are not worlds where anything goes - we should only accept impossible worlds of a very conservative variety. The theory ultimately endorsed here is one that rejects analyses that appeal to what we might call "radically impossible worlds", or worlds where some classical logical contradictions are true. This book will be of value to anyone interested in contemporary analytic philosophy and its treatment of the notions of possibility, necessity and impossibility.