Acta Structuralica

international journal for structuralist research

Journal | Volume | Article

235730

A future for the thin red line

Alex MalpassJacek Wawer

pp. 117-142

Abstract

The thin red line (TRL) is a theory about the semantics of future-contingents. The central idea is that there is such a thing as the ‘actual future’, even in the presence of indeterminism. It is inspired by a famous solution to the problem of divine foreknowledge associated with William of Ockham, in which the freedom of agents is argued to be compatible with God’s omniscience. In the modern branching time setting, the theory of the TRL is widely regarded to suffer from several fundamental problems. In this paper we propose several new TRL semantics, each with differing degrees of success. This leads up to our final semantics, which is a cross between the TRL and supervaluationism. We discuss the notions of truth, validity and semantic consequence which result from our final semantics, and demonstrate some of its pleasing results. This account, we believe, answers the main objection in the literature, and thus places the TRL on the same level as any other competing semantics for future contingents.

Publication details

Published in:

Malpass Alex, Gifford Chris (2012) Branching-time and indeterminacy. Synthese 188 (1).

Pages: 117-142

DOI: 10.1007/s11229-012-0064-4

Full citation:

Malpass Alex, Wawer Jacek (2012) „A future for the thin red line“. Synthese 188 (1), 117–142.