Philosophy 290-6

This seminar will focus on the nature of conditionals (if-then statements). We will try to get to the bottom of several contemporary debates about conditionals. These debates will involve semantical, metaphysical, epistemological, logical, and pragmatic aspects of conditionals of various kinds (including indicative and subjunctive conditionals). The course will be pretty self-contained, and it will not presuppose too much technical or philosophical background. Our main goal will be to complete a careful reading of (most of) Jonathan Bennett’s recent book “A Philosophical Guide to Conditionals” (an excellent survey of the contemporary literature on conditionals). We will also read some of the primary sources that Bennett discusses (these additional readings will all be made available on the seminar webpage).