TY - JOUR
T1 - A critique of Malpass's argument against Supervaluationism
AU - De Florio, Ciro
AU - Frigerio, Aldo
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Supervaluationism is one of the most discussed approaches to the semantics of future tense sentences in a branching time. In this paper, we consider the criticism advanced by Malpass against Supervaluationism. This criticism relies on the fact that supervaluationists must accept as supertrue disjunctions whose disjuncts are not only supertrue-which supervaluationists are ready to acknowledge-but also not satisfiable. In order to show this, Malpass proposes a formula, FF1$$ F{F}_1 $$, which shows the existence of a satisfiable disjunction with unsatisfiable disjuncts in supervaluationist models. In reply, we show that formula FF1$$ F{F}_1 $$ cannot be expressed within a model (whether Ockhamist or supervaluationist) because it quantifies on models. It can be correctly characterised only within a meta-model that has the resources to quantify on various models. However, once that is done, FF1$$ F{F}_1 $$ is, for the advocates of Supervaluationism, no more demanding than other disjunctions because it just generalises at the meta-theoretical level what supervaluationists already acknowledge at the theoretical level.
AB - Supervaluationism is one of the most discussed approaches to the semantics of future tense sentences in a branching time. In this paper, we consider the criticism advanced by Malpass against Supervaluationism. This criticism relies on the fact that supervaluationists must accept as supertrue disjunctions whose disjuncts are not only supertrue-which supervaluationists are ready to acknowledge-but also not satisfiable. In order to show this, Malpass proposes a formula, FF1$$ F{F}_1 $$, which shows the existence of a satisfiable disjunction with unsatisfiable disjuncts in supervaluationist models. In reply, we show that formula FF1$$ F{F}_1 $$ cannot be expressed within a model (whether Ockhamist or supervaluationist) because it quantifies on models. It can be correctly characterised only within a meta-model that has the resources to quantify on various models. However, once that is done, FF1$$ F{F}_1 $$ is, for the advocates of Supervaluationism, no more demanding than other disjunctions because it just generalises at the meta-theoretical level what supervaluationists already acknowledge at the theoretical level.
KW - Supervaluationism
KW - branching future
KW - future tense semantics
KW - Supervaluationism
KW - branching future
KW - future tense semantics
UR - https://publicatt.unicatt.it/handle/10807/220360
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85141609365&origin=inward
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85141609365&origin=inward
U2 - 10.1111/theo.12441
DO - 10.1111/theo.12441
M3 - Article
SN - 0040-5825
VL - 89
SP - 31
EP - 41
JO - Theoria
JF - Theoria
IS - 1
ER -