Lesson plan
Centered world
A centered world, according to David Kellogg Lewis, consists of (1) a possible world, (2) an agent in that world, and (3) a time in that world. The concept of centered worlds has epistemic as well as metaphysical uses; for the latter, the three components of a centered world have connections to theories such as actualism, solipsism (especially egocentric presentism and perspectival realism), and presentism, respectively. One thought experiment posed by Lewis involves the existence of two gods who are omniscient about all the propositional facts about their worlds. One god lives on top of the tallest mountain and throws manna, while the other lives on top of the coldest mountain and throws thunderbolts. However, Lewis argues that none of the propositional facts about the world inform the gods about which particular god they are, and that this therefore implies the existence of indexical facts about who the world is centered around.
Article summary
A centered world, according to David Kellogg Lewis, consists of (1) a possible world, (2) an agent in that world, and (3) a time in that world. The concept of centered worlds has epistemic as well as metaphysical uses; for the latter, the three components of a centered world have connections to theories such as actualism, solipsism (especially egocentric presentism and perspectival realism), and presentism, respectively. One thought experiment posed by Lewis involves the existence of two gods who are omniscient about all the propositional facts about their worlds. One god lives on top of the tallest mountain and throws manna, while the other lives on top of the coldest mountain and throws thunderbolts. However, Lewis argues that none of the propositional facts about the world inform the gods about which particular god they are, and that this therefore implies the existence of indexical facts about who the world is centered around.
Key claims
No claims recorded.
Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.