We show that the thesis that identity is necessary is equivalent to the thesis that everything is necessarily what it is. Hence the challenges facing either, faces them both.
It is widely alleged that metaphysical possibility is “absolute” possibility (Kripke in Naming and necessity, Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
1980
; Lewis in On the plurality of worlds, ...Blackwell, Oxford,
1986
; van Inwagen in Philos Stud 92:68–84,
1997
; Rosen, in: Gendler and Hawthorne (eds) Conceivability and possibility, Clarendon, Oxford,
2002
, p 16; Stalnaker, in: Stalnaker (ed) Ways a world might be: metaphysical and anti-metaphysical essays, Oxford University Press, Oxford,
2003
, pp 201–215; Williamson in Can J Philos 46:453–492,
2016
). Kripke calls metaphysical necessity “necessity in the highest degree” (
1980
, p. 99). Van Inwagen claims that if P is metaphysically possible, then it is possible “tout court. Possible simpliciter. Possible period…. possib(le) without qualification (
1997
, p. 72).” And Stalnaker writes, “we can agree with Frank Jackson, David Chalmers, Saul Kripke, David Lewis, and most others who allow themselves to talk about possible worlds at all, that metaphysical necessity is necessity in the widest sense (
2003
, p. 203).” What exactly does the thesis that metaphysical possibility is absolute amount to? Is it true? In this article, I argue that, assuming that the thesis is not merely terminological, and lacking in any metaphysical interest, it is an article of faith. I conclude with the suggestion that metaphysical possibility may lack the metaphysical significance that is widely attributed to it.
What is ‘medical necessity’? Wilkinson, Dominic JC
Clinical ethics,
09/2023, Volume:
18, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Imagine that we are considering whether our healthcare system (or insurer) should fund treatment or procedure X. One factor that may be cited is that of so-called ‘medical necessity’. The claim would ...be that treatment X should be eligible for funding if it is medically necessary, but ineligible if this does not apply. Similarly, (and relevant to the debates in this special issue), if considering whether a particular treatment should be ethically and/or legally permitted, we may wish to distinguish between cases where the treatment is medically necessary, and those were it is not. But what do we mean by this concept? Here I will propose and briefly defend one plausible and practical definition.
This article represents comments arising from The Compatibility of Evolution and Design by Rope Kojonen (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) concerning the role of chance and randomness in evolution (citations ...from this book are shown as page numbers in brackets). The various meanings of chance and randomness as used in descriptions of biological evolution are discussed and contrasted with their meanings in mathematics and metaphysics. The discussion relates to the role of contingency in evolution and to ideological and rhetorical extrapolations from biology into philosophical world views. Overall it is concluded that evolution is not a chance process, except in the epistemic sense of “chance.” Theologically, this has implications for the idea that God creates through “a free evolutionary process” and may also influence our perspectives on divine action and intentionality in evolutionary history.
We examine how country-level institutional context moderates the relationship between three socio-cognitive traits—entrepreneurial self-efficacy, alertness to new business opportunities, and fear of ...failure—and opportunity entrepreneurship. To do this, we blend social cognitive theory (SCT) with institutional theory to develop a multi-level model of entrepreneurial entry. We merge data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) surveys and the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) index for 45 countries from 2002 to 2012. Our results, which are based on a multi-level fixed-effects model, suggest that entrepreneurs' self-efficacy and alertness to new opportunities promote opportunity entrepreneurship while fear of failure discourages it. However, the strength of these relationships depends on the institutional context, with entrepreneurial self-efficacy and alertness substantially more likely to lead to new opportunity-driven ventures in countries with higher levels of economic freedom. These results provide suggestive evidence that economic freedom not only channels individual effort to productive entrepreneurial activities, but also affects the extent to which individuals' socio-cognitive resources are likely to mobilized and lead to high-growth entrepreneurship.
•We blend social cognitive theory (SCT) with institutional theory to develop a multi-level model of entrepreneurial entry.•Entrepreneurial self-efficacy and alertness promote opportunity entrepreneurship while fear of failure discourages it.•The strength of these relationships depends on the institutional context.•Entrepreneurial self-efficacy and alertness promote opportunity entrepreneurship in countries with more economic freedom.•Individuals who are not afraid of failure are more involved in opportunity entrepreneurship when economic freedom is high.
This paper offers an account of the early career of Martha Kneale, née Hurst, and of the five papers she published between 1934 and 1950. One on metaphysical and logical necessity, from 1938, is ...particularly interesting. In it she considers the metaphysics of time and offers an explanation of 'the necessity of the past', which has some resemblance to Kripke's ideas about metaphysical necessities, in that it assigns an important role to experience in how we come to know them. But Kneale's view is very different from Kripke's, depending not on doctrines about rigid designation but rather on recognition of the failure of the atomist/empiricist account of 'simple' and 'complex' concepts. That account cannot deal with such things as the relations of the determinates of a determinable like colour. A plausible corollary of this, which Kneale exploits, is that some of our experience reveals to us that there are phenomena which are intrinsically complex in having multiple distinguishable aspects, but where those aspects are inseparable. Other of the papers show Kneale to have been pursuing interesting lines of thought about McTaggart's argument against the reality of time and on the mind-body problem.
The issue of necessity is one of the most important aspects of Hegel's philosophy. The meaning of necessity per se or necessity alone is not discussed here, but here we consider only the two ...constraints used in Hegel's expressions for necessity. The subject of discussion, accordingly, is the two words used in Hegel's statements, namely external and internal necessity. In the first stage, this article deals with the external and internal necessity. In the second stage, it explains the relationship between the two. Then in the third stage we discuss the relationship between these two types of necessity and Hegel's science or philosophical system, and finally in the fourth step, an attempt is made to critique and evaluate this relationship.
This paper studies the effects of state fragility and economic development on necessity and opportunity-based individual entrepreneurial efforts. We contribute to the literature on the contextual ...determinants of entrepreneurship by examining multilevel data on 956,925 individuals from 51 countries for the period of 2005–2013. We show that state fragility has a positive effect on necessity-based entrepreneurial efforts while hindering opportunity-based efforts. Our findings illustrate that the level of economic development moderates the relationship between state fragility and necessity-driven entrepreneurial efforts reducing the likelihood of the latter. We discuss the implications for theory and for proentrepreneurship policy.
The motives behind self-employment and the differences between women and men are a hot topic in entrepreneurship debate. This paper empirically explores the interaction of three types of motivation ...on the entrepreneurial activities of women and men in 24 European countries: opportunity-driven motivation, necessity-driven motivation and mixed motivation. Employing a dynamic method, a panel data analysis in the timeframe from 2009 to 2012 is conducted. In this regard, the paper explores entrepreneurship at the two levels of established businesses (EBs) and total early-stage entrepreneurial activities (TEAs). The findings suggest that all three motivational dimensions positively influence females’ self-employment at both levels. Also, the findings reveal that, at the established business level, there is a significant and positive relationship between entrepreneurship by men and opportunity-seeking motivation.
This research addresses the extent to which economic freedom, understood as market economy-oriented institutions and policies, matters for opportunity entrepreneurship and necessity entrepreneurship. ...To this end, we carry out a panel data dynamic analysis in the OECD countries during the period 2001–2012 by using the system Generalized Method of Moments estimator. We examine the relationship between the Fraser Institute's economic freedom index and its five areas, and both indicators from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor on opportunity entrepreneurship and necessity entrepreneurship. We find that economic liberalization tends to encourage opportunity entrepreneurship and to discourage necessity entrepreneurship. In particular, opportunity entrepreneurship seems to benefit from improvements in legal structure and security of property rights and in regulation of credit, labor, and business, while both aspects and more freedom to trade internationally seem to damage necessity entrepreneurship.
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