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Semifactual: Byrne's account of even-if

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2008

Simon J. Handley  and
Aidan Feeney
Simon J. Handley
Affiliation:
Centre for Thinking and Language, Department of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Drake's Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, United Kingdom
Aidan Feeney
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Durham University, Queen's Campus, Stockton-on-Tees TS17 6BH, United Kingdomshandley@plymouth.ac.ukaidan.feeney@durham.ac.ukhttp://www.plymouth.ac.uk/pages/dynamic.asp?page=staffdetails&id=shandleyhttp://www.dur.ac.uk/aidan.feeney
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Abstract

Byrne's approach to the semifactual conditional captures the reasoning data. However, we argue that it does not account for the processes or principles by which people arrive at representations of even-if conditionals, upon which their reasoning is said to be based. Drawing upon recent work on the suppositional conditional we present such an account.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 30 , Issue 5-6 , December 2007 , pp. 458 - 459
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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