This monograph presents the first detailed exposition of the formal theory of Branching Space-Times. The theory presented here by Nuel Belnap, Thomas Muller, and Tomasz Placek describes how real possibilities can play out in our spatio-temporal world. In our world, some things that are really possible in Cleveland are not really possible in San Francisco; other things were really possible in 1988 but are not really possible in 2021. The authors develop a rigorous, relativity-friendly theory of indeterminism as a local and modal concept, demonstrating that our world contains events with alternative possible outcomes.\nThe book is divided into two parts. The first contains the exposition of the theory, including detailed proofs. The second contains three applications of Branching Space-Times in metaphysics and philosophy of science, focusing on the use of Branching Space-Times to represent pertinent forms of indeterminism in each area. Some specific applications include a formal analysis of modal correlations and of causation and a rigorous theory of objective single-case probabilities, intended to represent degrees of possibility. The authors link their theory to current physics, investigating how local and modal indeterminism relates to issues in the foundations of physics, particularly in quantum non-locality and spatio-temporal relativity. They also relate the theory to philosophy of time, showing how it may be used to explicate the dynamic concept of the past, present, and future based on local indeterminism.\nThe Branching Space-Times theory has been in development over the past 25 years. This volume provides a much needed first systematic and comprehensive book-length exposition of both the theory and its applications.\nThis is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

Branching Space-Times: Theory and Applications (Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Science)

Politics & Social Sciences

Belnap, Nuel

Müller, Thomas

Placek, Tomasz

Philosophy

Oxford University Press

Here is an important new theory of human action, a theory that assumes actions are founded on choices made by agents who face an open future. It is a theory that makes indeterminism not only intelligible but illuminating. Tools from philosophy of language and philosophical logic help generate a full-scale account of agents "seeing to it that." The authors then proceed to clarify a variety of action-related topics such as determinism vs. indeterminism, imperatives, promises, strategies, joint agency, "could have done otherwise," deontic constructions, and assertions about a not yet settled future.

Facing the Future: Agents and Choices in Our Indeterminist World

XU MING

Perloff, Michael

In this rigorous investigation into the logic of truth Anil Gupta and Nuel Belnap explain how the concept of truth works in both ordinary and pathological contexts. The latter include, for instance, contexts that generate Liar Paradox. Their central claim is that truth is a circular concept. In support of this claim they provide a widely applicable theory (the "revision theory") of circular concepts. Under the revision theory, when truth is seen as circular both its ordinary features and its pathological features fall into a simple understandable pattern. The Revision Theory of Truth is unique in placing truth in the context of a general theory of definitions. This theory makes sense of arbitrary systems of mutually interdependent concepts, of which circular concepts, such as truth, are but a special case.

The Revision Theory of Truth

Science & Math

Gupta, Anil

Behavioral Sciences

Bradford Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Belnap, Nuel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Belnap, Nuel