On necessity and comparison

Aynat Rubinstein

doi:10.1111/papq.12047

On necessity and comparison

Aynat Rubinstein^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

The ability to compare possibilities and designate some as 'better' than others is a fundamental aspect of our use of modals and propositional attitude verbs. This article aims to support a proposal by Sloman (1970) that certain modal expressions, in particular, ought, in fact have a more pronounced comparative backbone than others (e.g. must). The connection between 'ought' and 'better' is supported by linguistic data (some of it, on the lack of direct translations of weak necessity crosslinguistically, is new) and a proposal is advanced for modeling ideals in a way that makes room for non-comparative, strong, priority-type necessity.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	512-554
Number of pages	43
Journal	Pacific Philosophical Quarterly
Volume	95
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/papq.12047
State	Published - 1 Dec 2014

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© 2014 The Author. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly © 2014 University of Southern California and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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On necessity and comparison

Abstract

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