Metaphysics, Language, and Epistemology Group

Abstract: We develop and defend a novel account on which metaphysical modality is grounded in tense. The view addresses two distinct questions. First, the grounding question: what makes particular modal facts obtain? Second—and more significantly—the modal determinacy question: what makes it the case that there is a fact of the matter about modality at all? We argue that prominent existing accounts of metaphysical modality are incomplete insofar as they lack a satisfactory answer to the modal determinacy question, but presuppose that there is answer to it. We show that our tense-based account addresses both the grounding and modal determinacy questions within an actualist framework, and that it therefore enjoys significant advantages over both possibilist and rival actualist views.

Registration: If you do not hold a university card, please contact the seminar convenor or admin@philosophy.ox.ac.uk at least two working days before a seminar to register your attendance.

_{Metaphysics and Epistemology Group Convenors: Nick Jones, Mona Simion, Bernhard Salow and Alex Kaiserman}