Actualism or Possibilism: A Grounding Approach

• Author / Creator

  Selcuk Kaan Tabakci

• Linsky and Zalta present a possible way to reconcile the Barcan Formula with actualism by positing contingently non-concrete objects. However, it has been argued that an actualism based on the existence of contingently non-
  concrete objects is not genuinely actualist, because contingently non-concrete objects are nothing but proxies, or a different label for possible objects. In this thesis, I will argue for another possible approach---truthmakers as alternative sources of explanation---to argue that Linsky and Zalta's account is an actualist theory. I will adapt Schaffer's truthmaker monism to Zalta's theory of abstract objects in order to show that we can have a logical system that can represent worlds as the truthmakers of propositions. Then, I will argue that the way we constructed the truthmakers in the Object Theory is parallel to other actualist reductions of possible worlds, and some of the naturalist accounts. Lastly, I will argue that Linsky and Zalta's metaphysics can be considered as an actualist one when it is combined with abstract worlds as the grounds of modal truths, since abstract worlds are necessary and actual beings.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Actualism
  • Metaphysics
  • Abstract Objects
  • Truthmakers
  • Object Theory
  • Philosophical Logic
  • Grounding

• Graduation date

  Fall 2018

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3NZ8160J

• License

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