Four Kinds of Conditionals

Abstract

There are certain logical problems that must be discussed prior to undertaking the analysis of subjunctive conditionals. The discussion of these problems will clarify the nature of these conditionals and thereby facilitate their analysis. The problem of analyzing subjunctive conditionals has been exacerbated by the fact that there are actually several different kinds of subjunctive conditionals, with different properties and correspondingly different analyses, and philosophers have not been sufficiently careful in distinguishing between them. In this chapter I will distinguish between four main kinds of subjunctive conditionals and explore their interrelations. It will turn out that these conditionals are all interdefinable, so an analysis of one will yield analyses of all the others.