David Lewis 1941 – 2001
David Kellogg Lewis was an American philosopher and one of the most influential figures of late twentieth-century analytic metaphysics. Holding chairs at UCLA and Princeton, he produced an extraordinary range of work in philosophical logic, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and ethics, unified by his commitment to systematic explanation. His doctrine of modal realism, articulated in On the Plurality of Worlds, holds that all logically possible worlds are real in the same sense as our own. His Counterfactuals, Convention, and Parts of Classes remain landmarks in their respective fields.
Key facts
- Nationality
- American
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Analytic
Selected quotes
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Attributed to David Lewis:
“There are so many other worlds, in fact, that absolutely every way that a world could possibly be is a way that some world is.”
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Attributed to David Lewis:
“I believe that there are possible worlds other than the one we happen to inhabit.”
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Attributed to David Lewis:
“The actual world is the world we are part of, no more and no less actual than any other world is to its inhabitants.”
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Attributed to David Lewis:
“Reality is, in the end, an ample plurality.”
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Attributed to David Lewis:
“A theory pays a price in ontological commitment for the explanatory benefits it confers.”