Topics in Recent and Contemporary Philosophy: Conventionalism & Modality

100 years or so ago conventionalist views of necessity were coming into fashion, and welcome for providing what seemed a plausible account of the sources both of modality and of our knowledge of. By 50 years or so ago intensive critique and considerably diminished the popularity of such views, which eventually went into eclipse. In recent decades several writers have produced revived, revised versions. The first half of the seminar is devoted to the classic papers from the 1920s-1970s, many of which are now no longer read as widely as they perhaps ought to be. The second half is devoted to more recent developments.