A paper by Schulz (Philos Stud 149:367-386, 2010) describes how the suppositional view of indicative conditionals can be supplemented with a derived view of epistemic modals. In a recent criticism of this paper, Willer (Philos Stud 153:365-375, 2011) argues that the resulting account of conditionals and epistemic modals cannot do justice to the validity of certain inference patterns involving modalised conditionals. In the present response, I analyse Willer's argument, identify an implicit presupposition which can plausibly be denied and show that accepting it would blur the difference between plain assumptions and their epistemic necessitations.Keywords Indicative conditionals Á Epistemic modals Á Modalised conditionals Á Suppositional view
Conditionals and epistemic modalsThe debates about conditionals and epistemic modals display various structural similarities. Positions of the same type have been advanced in both domains. There are contextualist theories of indicative conditionals and corresponding theories of epistemic modals. 1 More recently, there are also relativist theories of indicative conditionals supplementing the relativist theories of epistemic modals. 2 In the