Ifs and Cans

I take my title from J.L. Austin's justly famous paper of the same name, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and none the worse for a little graying. A young philosopher interested in the logic of conditionals and modals, as well as puzzles about human abilities and actions, could do much worse than to begin here and absorb the lessons Austin offers.

I shall use this place to investigate some of those lessons, and inevitably I shall arrive at conclusions that conflict with Austin's. I'm sure he would approve.