This Friday we are pleased to welcome our very own Malte Willer (University of Chicago, philosophy), who will be presenting a new approach to indicative Sobel sequences!

Speaker: Malte Willer
Title: Another Case For Dynamic Conditionals
Date: Friday 5/23
Time: 11:30 to 1:20
Location: Social Sciences 401

Abstract:

Folklore has it that Sobel sequences favor a variably strict analysis of conditionals over its plainly strict alternative. While recent discussions for or against the lore have focussed on (reverse) Sobel sequences involving subjunctive conditionals, I here draw attention to the fact that indicative Sobel sequences are just as felicitous as their subjunctive cousins. The fact, or so I will argue, proves problematic for the classical view: given minimal assumptions about the semantics and pragmatics of indicative conditionals, a variably strict analysis fails to predict that indicative Sobel sequences are felicitous. A properly dynamic strict analysis of indicatives, in constrast, handles the data with grace, and it can also be extended so that it covers subjunctives. Time permitting, I discuss how the story told here handles reverse Sobel sequences and of how it differs from previous dynamic analyses of conditionals.