Getting God out of our (modal) business

Sophia 48 (4):379-391 (2009)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Some hold that if we can imagine God creating a world in which a particular proposition (p) is true, then we can conclude that p is possible. I argue that such appeals to God can’t provide us with a guide to possibility. For either God’s powers aren’t co-extensive with the possible or they are. And if they are, these appeals either beg the question or court a version of Euthyphro’s Dilemma. Some may argue that such appeals were only intended to prompt us to think broadly about the modal claim at issue. I argue instead that these appeals must be understood as more than mere prompts. For it is these appeals that would, if successful, render the conceivability principle viable.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 92,261

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Thoughts about God.Brian Davies - 2005 - Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 79:21-27.
God Laughs: And Other Surprising Things You Never Knew About Him.Elmer L. Towns - 2009 - Regal Books. Edited by Charles Billingsley.
Theism and Modal Collapse.Klaas J. Kraay - 2011 - American Philosophical Quarterly 48 (4):361.
God's creation of morality.Tim Mawson - 2002 - Religious Studies 38 (1):1-25.
God's point of view: A reply to Mander.Yujin Nagasawa - 2003 - Heythrop Journal 44 (1):60–63.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-11-07

Downloads
89 (#192,337)

6 months
14 (#184,493)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Rebecca Hanrahan
Whitman College

References found in this work

Naming and Necessity: Lectures Given to the Princeton University Philosophy Colloquium.Saul A. Kripke - 1980 - Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Edited by Darragh Byrne & Max Kölbel.
Naming and necessity.Saul A. Kripke - 2010 - In Darragh Byrne & Max Kölbel (eds.), Arguing about language. New York: Routledge. pp. 431-433.
Naming and Necessity.S. Kripke - 1972 - Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 45 (4):665-666.
Naming and Necessity.Saul Kripke - 2003 - In John Heil (ed.), Philosophy of Mind: A Guide and Anthology. Oxford University Press.

View all 23 references / Add more references