Work Classification Layer
Compare Works
Pick two or more works to set their attribute fingerprints, dimension-by-dimension passages, and shared school embodiments side by side. Especially useful for author-stage comparisons (Wittgenstein early vs late) and for setting a single tradition's foundational texts against each other.
A Theory of Conditionals
Stalnaker's 1968 founding paper of the possible-worlds semantics for conditionals — the 'Stalnaker conditional'
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | A Theory of Conditionals (Early) |
|---|---|
| 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 | Impersonal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Reason |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| 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 work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
A Theory of Conditionals
1968. Stalnaker was 28; the paper appeared as the lead article in the Rescher-edited APQ Monograph.
Space
A Theory of Conditionals
Cornell / Pittsburgh philosophical milieu — Stalnaker had completed his Princeton PhD in 1965 and was teaching at Yale / Illinois before moving to Cornell.
Matter
A Theory of Conditionals
Short scientific-philosophical paper (~15 pages). Form is technical-semantic: definitions, axioms, theorems, philosophical interpretation.
Observer
A Theory of Conditionals
Early Stalnaker. The observer is the young philosophical-logician working at the intersection of Kripke's modal-logical framework and the substantive philosophical questions about conditionals.
Energy
A Theory of Conditionals
Formal-semantic energies of late-1960s philosophical logic. The selection-function semantics extends Kripke's possible-worlds framework to a problem (the meaning of conditionals) that earlier modal logic had not handled.
Information
A Theory of Conditionals
Single 15-page paper, hugely influential. The paper's central informational structure is the selection-function semantics; the philosophical-conceptual sections defend and motivate the formal apparatus.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Together with Lewis's 'Counterfactuals' (1973), the founding statement of possible-worlds semantics for conditionals; the Stalnaker-Lewis divergence (uniqueness assumption / Conditional Excluded Middle vs not) defined the field. The two frameworks continue to organise contemporary debates in philosophy of conditionals, with Stalnaker's defended by (among others) Frank Jackson and Stefan Kaufmann, Lewis's by (among others) Jonathan Bennett and Dorothy Edgington.