Main Tenets of Modal Realism
At the heart of David Lewis's modal realism are six central doctrines about possible worlds:
- Possible worlds exist – they are just as real as our world;
- Possible worlds are the same sort of things as our world – they differ in content, not in kind;
- Possible worlds cannot be reduced to something more basic – they are irreducible entities in their own right.
- Actuality is indexical. When we distinguish our world from other possible worlds by claiming that it alone is actual, we mean only that it is our world.
- Possible worlds are unified by the spatiotemporal interrelations of their parts; every world is spatiotemporally isolated from every other world.
- Possible worlds are causally isolated from each other.
Read more about this topic: Modal Realism
Famous quotes containing the words main, tenets and/or realism:
“I knew that the wall was the main thing in Quebec, and had cost a great deal of money.... In fact, these are the only remarkable walls we have in North America, though we have a good deal of Virginia fence, it is true.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“As for the tenets of the Brahmans, we are not so much concerned to know what doctrines they held, as that they were held by any. We can tolerate all philosophies.... It is the attitude of these men, more than any communication which they make, that attracts us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“While we look to the dramatist to give romance to realism, we ask of the actor to give realism to romance.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)