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Persona #240

Robert Stalnaker

1940–
American philosopher of language, logic, and mind

Possible-worlds semantics for conditionals, propositions, and pragmatic context

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where personas disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid (32 attributes) is shown.

Attribute Robert Stalnaker
Time · Extent Infinite
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom NDet
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Infinite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Curved
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Finite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Immediate
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Active
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency None
Observer · Moral Authority Reason
Observer · Theological Method N/A
Energy · Extent Finite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Non-conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each persona's writings reveal about their stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

Robert Stalnaker

Standard relativistic physical time.

Space

Robert Stalnaker

Standard relativistic space-time; the possible-worlds machinery operates over abstract structures, not concrete worlds.

Matter

Robert Stalnaker

Substantival; ontology of the actual world is whatever physics says.

Observer

Robert Stalnaker

Embodied epistemic agent; assertions and inquiries make sense in cooperative conversational contexts.

Energy

Robert Stalnaker

Conventional.

Information

Robert Stalnaker

Propositional content is set-theoretic — propositions as sets of possible worlds — and is conserved across logical-conversational manipulation.

Internal Tensions

Where each persona's working synthesis strains against itself.

Robert Stalnaker

Coarse-grained propositions (sets of possible worlds) have well-known difficulties accommodating the apparent fine-grained distinctions between necessarily equivalent claims; Stalnaker's pragmatic-presuppositional refinements address some but not all of the cases. The disagreement with Lewis on conditional excluded middle and on the metaphysics of worlds remains open.