Page "Modal realism" Paragraph 22

* Too many worlds This is perhaps a variant of the previous category, but it relies on appeals to mathematical propriety rather than Occamist principles.

Some argue that Lewis ' principles of " worldmaking " ( means by which we might establish the existence of further worlds by recombination of parts of worlds we already think exist ) are too permissive.

So permissive are they, in fact, that the total number of worlds must exceed what is mathematically coherent.

Lewis allows that there are difficulties and subtleties to address on this front ( 1986, pp. 89 – 90 ).

Daniel Nolan (" Recombination unbound ", Philosophical Studies, 1996, vol.

84, pp. 239 – 262 ) mounts a sustained argument against certain forms of the objection ; but variations on it continue to appear.