Tolerance and Counterpart Theory

Abstract

Many philosophers have thought that Tolerance Puzzles can be easily dissolved by adopting some form of counterpart theory, which is roughly the view that being possibly a certain way is having a counterpart that is that way. This chapter shows how standard versions of counterpart theory involve radical departures from standard modal logic (going far beyond Iteration-denial) which we claim are unacceptable, and argues that once counterpart theory is developed in such a way as to avoid such logical revisionism, it has no special capacity to resolve the puzzles.