|
|
|
|
|
|
compossible worlds, is even more circular. Moreover, the forms of accessibility (reflexivity, transitivity, symmetry) change according to different modal systems (see Hughes and Cresswell, 1968). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(ii) The notion of possible worlds as used in the context of natural languages is a substantive one. If the formal notion at least permits certain calculuses, the substantive one does not; therefore, why use it? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This kind of criticism sounds very convincing, and I am eager to accept it when dealing with a lot of pseudometaphysical questions concerning counterfactuals or the ontological status of what would have happened had things not gone the way they did. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
But I cannot avoid some considerations concerning my present research: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(i) It is rather difficult to deal with inferential walks without disposing of some notion of possible courses of events. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(ii) A text such as Drame seems to suggest that we have to introduce the notion of possible worlds of one's beliefs into the picture in order to explain how Drame works (or how it does not work at all). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(iii) If the notion of possible worlds comes from literature, why not bring it back there? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
To avoid a lot of epistemological discussions about the different senses of this notion, let me outline a definition of the possible world, accessibility among worlds, and the identity of a given individual through worlds (transworld identity) which fits the requirement of a semiotic analysis of pragmatic processes in generating and interpreting texts (see mainly Petofi
*, 1975, 1976; Vaina, 1976, 1977): |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(i) a possible world is a possible state of affairs expressed by a set of relevant propositions where for every proposition either p or ~p; |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(ii) as such it outlines a set of possible individuals along with their properties; |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(iii) since some of these properties or predicates are actions, a possible world is also a possible course of events; |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(iv) since this course of events is not actual, it must depend on the propositional attitudes of somebody; in other words, possible worlds are worlds imagined, believed, wished, and so on. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It has been rather natural for some authors to compare a possible world with a 'complete novel' as an ensemble of statements that cannot be increased without making it inconsistent. A possible world is in effect what such a complete novel describes (Hintikka, 1967, 1969b). Accord- |
|
|
|
|
|