Modus ponens and the contextualistic solution to the miners paradox
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The aim of this talk will be to present my original solution to a famous miners paradox,
established by Niko Kolodny and John MacFarlane in their paper “Ifs and Oughts”. The main
premise of the paradox is that the miners are trapped in one of the two shafts and we cannot block
either one of them to prevent the flood, since we do not know where they are and blocking of the
wrong one would lead to unnecessary deaths. However, Kolodny and MacFarlane construct a
counterexample that proves that the use of modus ponens will lead not only to a false conclusion,
but also a contradictory one. In the case of trapped miners, conclusion will be that we ought to block one of the shafts, which contradicts the first premise that neither of the two shafts ought to be
blocked. Kolodny and MacFarlane conclude that modus ponens is the cause of this type of
contradictions.
I have noticed two fundamental problems with the premises presented by Kolodny and
MacFarlane. They claim that the... first premise (“We ought to block neither shaft.”) is based on our
moral obligations and thus indisputable. However, I shall try to point out that this premise can only
be accepted as a conclusion of reasoning – the one already involving modus ponens. I shall claim
that Kolodny and MacFarlane need to use modus ponens in order to construct such premise that
would allow them further construction of the argument against modus ponens. If the argument is
successful in proving that the use of modus ponens is wrong, it is such just because of the previous correct use of modus ponens.
Кључне речи:
modus ponens / miners paradox / Kolodny / MacFarlaneИзвор:
Book of Abstracts - Fourth Belgrade Graduate Conference in Philosophy, 05-2019Издавач:
- Filozofski fakultet u Beogradu
Институција/група
Filozofija / PhilosophyTY - CONF AU - Vučković, Aleksandra PY - 2019-05 UR - http://reff.f.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/5813 AB - The aim of this talk will be to present my original solution to a famous miners paradox, established by Niko Kolodny and John MacFarlane in their paper “Ifs and Oughts”. The main premise of the paradox is that the miners are trapped in one of the two shafts and we cannot block either one of them to prevent the flood, since we do not know where they are and blocking of the wrong one would lead to unnecessary deaths. However, Kolodny and MacFarlane construct a counterexample that proves that the use of modus ponens will lead not only to a false conclusion, but also a contradictory one. In the case of trapped miners, conclusion will be that we ought to block one of the shafts, which contradicts the first premise that neither of the two shafts ought to be blocked. Kolodny and MacFarlane conclude that modus ponens is the cause of this type of contradictions. I have noticed two fundamental problems with the premises presented by Kolodny and MacFarlane. They claim that the first premise (“We ought to block neither shaft.”) is based on our moral obligations and thus indisputable. However, I shall try to point out that this premise can only be accepted as a conclusion of reasoning – the one already involving modus ponens. I shall claim that Kolodny and MacFarlane need to use modus ponens in order to construct such premise that would allow them further construction of the argument against modus ponens. If the argument is successful in proving that the use of modus ponens is wrong, it is such just because of the previous correct use of modus ponens. PB - Filozofski fakultet u Beogradu C3 - Book of Abstracts - Fourth Belgrade Graduate Conference in Philosophy T1 - Modus ponens and the contextualistic solution to the miners paradox UR - https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_5813 ER -
@conference{ author = "Vučković, Aleksandra", year = "2019-05", abstract = "The aim of this talk will be to present my original solution to a famous miners paradox, established by Niko Kolodny and John MacFarlane in their paper “Ifs and Oughts”. The main premise of the paradox is that the miners are trapped in one of the two shafts and we cannot block either one of them to prevent the flood, since we do not know where they are and blocking of the wrong one would lead to unnecessary deaths. However, Kolodny and MacFarlane construct a counterexample that proves that the use of modus ponens will lead not only to a false conclusion, but also a contradictory one. In the case of trapped miners, conclusion will be that we ought to block one of the shafts, which contradicts the first premise that neither of the two shafts ought to be blocked. Kolodny and MacFarlane conclude that modus ponens is the cause of this type of contradictions. I have noticed two fundamental problems with the premises presented by Kolodny and MacFarlane. They claim that the first premise (“We ought to block neither shaft.”) is based on our moral obligations and thus indisputable. However, I shall try to point out that this premise can only be accepted as a conclusion of reasoning – the one already involving modus ponens. I shall claim that Kolodny and MacFarlane need to use modus ponens in order to construct such premise that would allow them further construction of the argument against modus ponens. If the argument is successful in proving that the use of modus ponens is wrong, it is such just because of the previous correct use of modus ponens.", publisher = "Filozofski fakultet u Beogradu", journal = "Book of Abstracts - Fourth Belgrade Graduate Conference in Philosophy", title = "Modus ponens and the contextualistic solution to the miners paradox", url = "https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_5813" }
Vučković, A.. (2019-05). Modus ponens and the contextualistic solution to the miners paradox. in Book of Abstracts - Fourth Belgrade Graduate Conference in Philosophy Filozofski fakultet u Beogradu.. https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_5813
Vučković A. Modus ponens and the contextualistic solution to the miners paradox. in Book of Abstracts - Fourth Belgrade Graduate Conference in Philosophy. 2019;. https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_5813 .
Vučković, Aleksandra, "Modus ponens and the contextualistic solution to the miners paradox" in Book of Abstracts - Fourth Belgrade Graduate Conference in Philosophy (2019-05), https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_5813 .