Real Conditionals

Logicians have written a great deal on the semantics of conditional sentences. This book contends that insufficient attention has been paid to the syntax of conditionals, as investigated by linguists. Syntactic data are used to make the case that "If"-clauses tacitly quantify over items called"events," "circumstances," or "conditions." This motivates a semantic theory of conditionals that concentrates on "only if," "even if" and "unless" as well as on "If...then." The theory is then applied to a number of examples from the literature, and its predictions and successes compare favorablyto those of competing semantic theories.

William Lycan is William Rand Kenan, Jr. Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina.