Title
What Are Centered Worlds?
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-2012
Publication Title
Philosophical Quarterly
Department
Philosophy
Abstract
David Lewis argues that centered worlds give us a way to capture de se, or self-locating, contents in philosophy of language and philosophy of mind. In recent years, centered worlds have also gained other uses in areas ranging widely from metaphysics to ethics. This paper raises a problem for centered worlds and discusses the costs and benefits of different solutions. The present investigation into the nature of centered worlds helps to explicate potentially problematic implicit commitments of the theories that employ them. In addition, this investigation reveals that the conception of centered worlds widely attributed to David Lewis is not only problematic, but in fact not his.
Volume
62
Issue
247
pp.
294–316
ISSN
0031-8094
WorldCat Link
Citation
Liao, Shen-yi (2012). What Are Centered Worlds? Philosophical Quarterly 62 (247):294-316.