Philosophy Talk: Inconsistent Fictions, Impossible Worlds
Barak Krakauer, UMass Philosophy graduate student, will lecture on "Inconsistent Fictions, Impossible Worlds."
The lecture will be a lively and easy to follow introduction to possible worlds and the problem of inconsistent fictions.
Krakauer will speak about how things can be true in fictions. According to at least one theory, something is true in a story if it's true in a possible world where the events of the story actually happen. It's true that DeLoreans can go back in time- true in the possible world of Back to the Future. Many stories, however, are inconsistent -- they contradict themselves in some way. Don't tell Doc, but time travel is logically impossible-- in any world. If a story is contradictory, it seems that there is no possible world at which the events of the story could take place. It looks like there can't be a possible world of Back to the Future, because it would be full of contradictions. But there must be a possible world of Back to the Future-- we all know what's true about Marty McFly. This provides us with an interesting reason to accept the existence of impossible worlds, or worlds which themselves contain contradictions.
Krakauer is a fourth year grad student in philosophy. His research covers metaphysics and epistemology, the study of knowledge. He is especially interested in problems related to sets of contradictory beliefs. He currently teaches intro to ethics.