Conclusion
A comprehensive theory ofeven if needs to account for consequent ‘entailing’even ifs and in particular those of theif-focused variety. This is where the theory ofeven if ceases to be neutral between conditional theories. I have argued thatif-focusedeven ifs,especially if andonly if can only be accounted for through the suppositional theory ofif. Furthermore, a particular interpretation of this theory — the conditional assertion theory — is needed to account foronly if and a type of metalinguistic negation ofQ if P. We therefore have evidence that the currently accepted approaches to conditionals are basically wrong about the semantic forms they attribute toif P, Q.11
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Barker, S.J. The consequent-entailment problem foreven if . Linguist Philos 17, 249–260 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00985037
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00985037