What is really possible 2 (WIRP-2): Logical and Philosophical Aspects of Real Possibility

We live in a world of possibilities. Much of our practical life – planning, deciding, hoping and fearing – only makes sense before a background of options to choose from and possibilities for what the future will bring: real possibilities in concrete situations. Such real possibilities are dynamical: they vanish when they are not actualized. Real possibilities are commonly represented within branching frameworks such as provided by the Prior-Thomason account of Branching Time and Belnap’s theory of Branching Space-Times. In those branching frameworks our world is pictured as a tree of histories branching off from a single past course of events into multiple possible futures. Work on real possibility has so far been mainly technical, e.g., in the formal-logical study of the semantics of the future tense and the problem of future contingents. In this workshop we want to combine logical and philosophical aspects of real possibility. Important logical questions concern the interaction of time, modality and quantifcation. Connected to these logical issues there are questions of interpretation: How should a branching structure be understood in the first place? Are all branches equally real? What is the difference between branching and divergence? How can individuals be situated within a branching picture? Exploring the relation of real possibility to other notions of possibility is another desideratum. Metaphysical and physical possibilities are prominent in accounts of causality and laws of nature. The role of real possibilities in metaphysics and in the sciences still needs to be assessed.

This workshop is as a satellite workshop following the GAP.8 conference of the Society for Analytic Philosophy in Germany, 17-20 September 2012 (see: GAP.8 website: http://www.gap8.de/).

Attendance of the workshop is free, but limited due to space restrictions; if you wish to attend, please send email to [email protected].

WIRP-2 is the second workshop of the NWO VIDI research project "What is Really Possible? Philosophical explorations in branching-history based real modality" hosted by the Department of Philosophy of Utrecht University. See: http://possibilities.phil.uu.nl/.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us via [email protected].

For more information, see the workshop website: