Papers by David Lewis

This is a collection of philosophical papers by David Kellogg Lewis. Eventually, I hope to make it complete.

Articles

(1966) "An Argument for the Identity Theory", Journal of Philosophy, 63: 17–25.
(1966) "Percepts and Color Mosaics in Visual Experience", Philosophical Review, 75: 357–368.
(1966) "Scriven on Human Unpredictability" (with Jane Shelby Richardson), Philosophical Studies, 17: 69–74.
(1968) "Counterpart Theory and Quantified Modal Logic", Journal of Philosophy, 65: 113–126. Postscripts (published in Lewis 1983)
(1968) "Finitude and Infinitude in the Atomic Calculus of Individuals" (with Wilfrid Hodges), Noûs, 2: 405–410.
(1969) "Lucas against Mechanism", Philosophy, 44: 231–233.
(1969) "Policing the Aufbau", Philosophical Studies, 20: 13–17.
(1970) "Anselm and Actuality", Noûs, 4: 175–188. Postscripts (published in Lewis 1983)
(1970) "General Semantics", Synthese, 22: 18–67. Postscripts (published in Lewis 1983)
(1970) "How to Define Theoretical Terms", Journal of Philosophy, 67: 427–446.
(1970) "Nominalistic Set Theory", Noûs, 4: 225–240.
(1970) "Holes" (with Stephanie R. Lewis), Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 48: 206–212.
(1971) "Analog and Digital", Noûs, 5: 321–327.
(1971) "Completeness and Decidability of Three Logics of Counterfactual Conditionals", Theoria, 37: 74–85.
(1971) "Counterparts of Persons and Their Bodies", Journal of Philosophy, 68: 203–211.
(1971) "Immodest Inductive Methods", Philosophy of Science, 38: 54–63.
(1972) "Psychophysical and Theoretical Identifications", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 50: 249–258.
(1972) "Utilitarianism and Truthfulness", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 50: 17–19.
(1973) "Causation", Journal of Philosophy, 70: 556–567. (Postscripts)
(1973) "Counterfactuals and Comparative Possibility", Journal of Philosophical Logic, 2: 418–446.
(1973) "Lingue e lingua", Versus, 4: 2–21.
(1974) "Tensions", in Milton K. Munitz and Peter K. Unger (eds.), Semantics and Philosophy, New York: New York University Press, pp. 49–61.
(1974) "Intensional Logics Without Iterative Axioms", Journal of Philosophical Logic, 3: 457–466.
(1974) "Radical Interpretation", Synthese, 23: 331–344. Postscripts (published in Lewis 1983)
(1974) "Semantic Analyses for Dyadic Deontic Logic", in Sören Stenlund (ed.), Logical Theory and Semantic Analysis: Essays Dedicated to Stig Kanger on His Fiftieth Birthday, Dordrecht: Reidel, pp. 1–14.
(1974) "Spielman and Lewis on Inductive Immodesty", Philosophy of Science, 41: 84–85.
(1975) "Adverbs of Quantification", in Edward L. Keenan (ed.), Formal Semantics of Natural Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 3–15.
(1975) "Languages and Language", in Keith Gunderson (ed.), Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Volume VII, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 3–35.
(1976) "Convention: Reply to Jamieson", Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 6: 113–120.
(1976) "Probabilities of Conditionals and Conditional Probabilities", Philosophical Review, 85: 297–315.
(1976) "Survival and Identity", in Amélie O. Rorty (ed.), The Identities of Persons, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 17–40. Postscripts (published in Lewis 1983)
(1976) "The Paradoxes of Time Travel", American Philosophical Quarterly, 13: 145–152.
(1977) "Possible-World Semantics for Counterfactual Logics: A Rejoinder", Journal of Philosophical Logic, 6: 359–363.
(1978) "Reply to McMichael", Analysis, 38: 85–86.
(1978) "Truth in Fiction", American Philosophical Quarterly, 15: 37–46. Postscripts (published in Lewis 1983)
(1979) "A Problem about Permission", in E. Saarinen et al. (eds.), Essays in Honour of Jaakko Hintikka, Dordrecht: Reidel, pp. 163–175.
(1979) "Attitudes De Dicto and De Se", Philosophical Review, 88: 513–543. Postscripts (published in Lewis 1983)
(1979) "Counterfactual Dependence and Time's Arrow", Noûs, 13: 455–476.
(1979) "Lucas Against Mechanism II", Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 9: 373–376.
(1979) "Prisoners' Dilemma is a Newcomb Problem", Philosophy and Public Affairs, 8: 235–240.
(1979) "Scorekeeping in a Language Game", Journal of Philosophical Logic, 8: 339–359.
(1980) "Veridical Hallucination and Prosthetic Vision", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 58: 239–249.
(1980) "A Subjectivist's Guide to Objective Chance", in Richard C. Jeffrey (ed.), Studies in Inductive Logic and Probability, Volume II, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 263–293.
(1980) "Index, Context, and Content", in Stig Kanger and Sven Öhman (eds.), Philosophy and Grammar, Dordrecht: Reidel, pp. 79–100.
(1980) "Mad Pain and Martian Pain", in Ned Block (ed.), Readings in Philosophy of Psychology, Volume I, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, pp. 216–32. Postscripts (published in Lewis 1983)
(1981) "Causal Decision Theory", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 59: 5–30.
(1981) "Are We Free to Break the Laws?", Theoria, 47: 113–121.
(1981) "Ordering Semantics and Premise Semantics for Counterfactuals", Journal of Philosophical Logic, 10: 217–234.
(1981) "Why Ain'cha Rich?", Noûs, 15: 377–380.
(1981) "What Puzzling Pierre Does Not Believe", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 59: 283–289.
(1982) "'Whether' Report", in Tom Pauli (ed.), 320311: Philosophical Essays Dedicated to Lennart Åqvist on his Fiftieth Birthday, Uppsala: University of Uppsala Press, pp. 194–206.
(1982) "Censored Vision", Written under the name “Bruce LeCatt", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 60: 158–162.
(1982) "Logic for Equivocators", Noûs, 16: 431–441. Errata.
(1983) "New Work For a Theory of Universals", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 61: 343–377.
(1983) "Individuation by Acquaintance and by Stipulation", Philosophical Review, 92: 3–32.
(1983) "Levi Against U-Maximization", Journal of Philosophy, 80: 531-534.
(1983) "Extrinsic Properties", Philosophical Studies, 44: 197–200.
(1984) "Devil's Bargains and the Real World", in Douglas MacLean (ed.), The Security Gamble: Deterrence in the Nuclear Age, Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Allenheld, pp. 141–154.
(1984) "Putnam's Paradox", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 62: 221–236.
(1986) "A Comment on Armstrong and Forrest", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 64: 92–93.
(1986) "Against Structural Universals", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 64: 25–46.
(1986) "Buy Like a MADman, Use Like a NUT"; QQ 6: 5–8.
(1986) "Causal Explanation"; in Lewis 1986, pp. 214–240.
(1986) "Events"; in Lewis 1986, pp. 241–269.
(1986) "Probabilities of Conditionals and Conditional Probabilities II", Philosophical Review, 95: 581–589.
(1987) "The Punishment that Leaves Something to Chance", Proceedings of the Russellian Society, University of Sydney, 12: 81–97.
(1988) "Ayer's First Empiricist Criterion of Meaning: Why Does it Fail?", Analysis, 48: 1–3.
(1988) "Desire as Belief", Mind, 97: 323–332.
(1988) "Rearrangement of Particles: Reply to Lowe", Analysis, 48: 65–72.
(1988) "Relevant Implication", Theoria, 54: 162–174.
(1988) "Statements Partly About Observation", Philosophical Papers, 17: 1–31.
(1988) "The Trap's Dilemma", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 66: 220–223.
(1988) "Vague identity: Evans misunderstood", Analysis, 48: 128–130.
(1988) "What Experience Teaches" (Lecture Recording), Proceedings of the Russellian Society, University of Sydney, 13: 29–57 (reprinted in There's Something About Mary, 2004).
(1989) "Academic Appointments: Why Ignore the Advantage of Being Right?", in Ormond Papers, Ormond College, University of Melbourne. Reprinted in Lewis 2000, pp. 187–200.
(1989) "Dispositional Theories of Value", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume 63: 113–137.
(1989) "Finite Counterforce", in Henry Shue (ed.), Nuclear Deterrence and Moral Restraint, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 51–114.
(1989) "Mill and Milquetoast", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 67: 152–171.
(1990) "Noneism or Allism?", Mind, 99: 23–31.
(1992) "Meaning Without Use: Reply to Hawthorne", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 70: 106–110.
(1992), Critical Notice of Armstrong, A Combinatorial Theory of Possibility, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 70: 211–224.
(1993) "Counterpart Theory, Quantified Modal Logic, and Extra Argument Places", Analysis, 53: 69–71.
(1993) "Evil for Freedom's Sake?", Philosophical Papers, 22: 149–172.
(1993) "Many, But Almost One", in Keith Campbell, John Bacon, and Lloyd Reinhardt (eds.), Ontology, Causality and Mind: Essays on the Philosophy of D. M. Armstrong, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 23–38.
(1993) "Mathematics is Megethology", Philosophia Mathematica, 3: 3–23.
(1994) "Humean Supervenience Debugged", Mind, 103: 473–490.
(1994) "Reduction of Mind", in Samuel Guttenplan (ed.), A Companion to Philosophy of Mind, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, pp. 412–431. Republished in Philosophy of Psychology: Contemporary Readings Bermudez (ed.) and in Philosophy of Mind: Contemporary Readings (O'Connor and Robb (eds.).
(1995) "Ern Malley's Namesake", Quadrant, 39: 14–15.
(1995) "Should a Materialist Believe in Qualia?", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 73: 140–144.
(1996) "Desire as Belief II", Mind, 105: 303–313.
(1996) "Elusive Knowledge", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 74: 549–567.
(1996) "Maudlin and Modal Mystery", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 74: 683–684.
(1997) "Do We Believe in Penal Substitution?", Philosophical Papers, 26: 203–209.
(1997) "Finkish Dispositions", (Lecture Video) Philosophical Quarterly, 47: 143–58.
(1997) "Naming the Colours", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 75: 325–342.
(1998 "Defining "Intrinsic"", (with Rae Langton), Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 58: 333–345.
(1999) "Why Conditionalize?", Written in 1972 as a course handout, but not published until 1999 in Lewis 1999.
(1999) "Zimmerman and the Spinning Sphere", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 77: 209–212.
(2000) "Causation as Influence", Journal of Philosophy, 97: 182–197.
(2001) "Forget About the ‘Correspondence Theory of Truth’", Analysis, 61: 275–280.
(2001) "Redefining "Intrinsic"", Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 63: 381–398.
(2001) "Sleeping Beauty: Reply to Elga", Analysis, 61: 171–176.
(2001) "Truthmaking and Difference-Making", Noûs, 35: 602-615.
(2001) "Marshall and Parsons on "Intrinsic"", (with Rae Langton), Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 63: 353–355.
(2002) "Tensing the Copula", Mind, 111: 1–14.
(2002) "Tharp's Third Theorem", Analysis, 62: 95–97.
(2003) "Rights to Rights", Theoria, 69: 160–165.
(2003) "Things qua Truthmakers", in Hallvard Lillehammer and Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra (eds.), Real Metaphysics: Essays in Honour of D. H. Mellor, London: Routledge, pp. 25–38.
(2003) "Postscript to "Things qua Truthmakers": Negative Existentials" (with Gideon Rosen), in Hallvard Lillehammer and Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra (eds.), Real Metaphysics: Essays in Honour of D. H. Mellor, London: Routledge, pp. 39–42.
(2004) "Causation as Influence" (longer version), in John Collins, Ned Hall, and L.A. Paul (eds.), Causation and Counterfactuals, Cambridge: MIT Press, pp. 75–106.
(2004) "How Many Lives has Schrödinger's Cat?", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 82: 3–22.
(2004) "Tensed Quantifiers", in Dean Zimmerman (ed.), Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, Volume 1, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 3–14.
(2004) "Void and Object", in John Collins, Ned Hall, and L.A. Paul (eds.), Causation and Counterfactuals, Cambridge: MIT Press, pp. 277–290.
(2004) "Letters to Priest and Beall", in Graham Priest, J. C. Beall and Bradley Armour-Garb (eds.), The Law of Non-Contradiction, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 176–177.
(2005) "Quasi-Realism is Fictionalism" in Mark Kalderon (ed.), Fictionalism in Metaphysics, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 314–321.
(2007) "Divine Evil", in Louise Anthony (ed.), Philosophers Without Gods, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 231–242.
(2009) "Ramseyan Humility"; in David Braddon-Mitchell and Robert Nola (eds.), Conceptual Analysis and Philosophical Naturalism, Cambridge: MIT Press, pp. 203–222.
(2015) "Counterparts of States of Affairs", in Loewer and Schaffer (eds.), A Companion to David Lewis, Blackwell.
(2015) "Reply to Dana Scott: Is There Life on Possible Worlds?", in Loewer and Schaffer (eds.), A Companion to David Lewis, Blackwell.
(2020) "Outline of Nihil Obstat: An Analysis of Ability"", The Monist 103: 241-244. For discussion and context, see this piece by Beebee et. al.

Reviews

(1969) Review of Capitan and Merrill (eds.), Art, Mind, and Religion, Journal of Philosophy, 66: 22–27.
(1975) Review of Olson and Paul, Contemporary Philosophy in Scandinavia (with Stephanie R. Lewis), Theoria, 41: 39–60.
(1989) Review of John Bigelow, The Reality of Numbers, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 67: 487–489.
(1996) "Illusory Innocence?"; review of Peter Unger, Living High and Letting Die, Eureka Street, 6, No. 10 December 1996: 35–36.
(1996), Review of R. Casati and A. Varzi (with Stephanie R. Lewis), Holes, Philosophical Review, 105: 77–79.
(1998) "A World of Truthmakers?", review of D. M. Armstrong, A World of States of Affairs, published as "The Truthmakers", Times Literary Supplement, 4948, 13 February 1998: 30.

Books

(1969) Convention: A Philosophical Study, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
(1973) Counterfactuals, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers and Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973, Reprinted with revisions, 1986.
(1983) Philosophical Papers, Volume I, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(1986) On the Plurality of Worlds, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
(1986) Philosophical Papers, Volume II, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(1991) Parts of Classes, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
(1998) Papers in Philosophical Logic, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
(1999) Papers in Metaphysics and Epistemology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
(2000) Papers in Ethics and Social Philosophy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
(2023) Philosophical Manuscripts, Janssen-Lauret and MacBride (eds.), Oxford.

Biography and Lewisology

(2012) "David Lewis : la vie d’un philosophe" (French; English Translation by Google), by Michele Salimbeni, Klesis – Revue philosophique, 24.
(2015) "Intellectual Biography of David Lewis (1941–2001) -- Early Influences", by Stephanie R. Lewis, in Loewer and Schaffer (eds.), A Companion to David Lewis, Wiley-Blackwell.
(2015) A Companion to David Lewis, Loewer & Schaffer (eds.), Wiley-Blackwell.
(2015) "Where (in logical space) is God?", by Stephanie R. Lewis, in Loewer and Schaffer (eds.), A Companion to David Lewis, Wiley-Blackwell.
(2016) "David Lewis and the Kangaroo: Graphing philosophical progress", by Benj Hellie, in Blackford and Broderick (eds.), Philosophy’s Future: The Problem of Philosophical Progress, Wily-Wiley-Blackwell.
(2020) Philosophical Letters of David K. Lewis: Volume 1: Causation, Modality, Ontology (Beebee and Fisher, eds), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(2020) Philosophical Letters of David K. Lewis: Volume 2: Mind, Language, Epistemology (Beebee and Fisher, eds), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(2023) "An Intellectual Biography of the Young David Lewis" by Frederique Janssen-Lauret and Fraser MacBride, in Janssen-Lauret and MacBride (eds.), Philosophical Manuscripts, Oxford.
(2023) Perspectives on the Philosophy of David K. Lewis, Beebee & Fisher (eds.), Oxford.
(forthcoming) The Philosophical Correspondence of David Armstrong and David Lewis, Anstey, Fisher & S.R. Lewis (eds.), Oxford.

Other Resources

David Lewis Search Engine (search the entire Lewis corpus, including correspondence)
The Man of Many Worlds (podcast series)

Maintained by Andrew M. Bailey. Thanks to Jakob Donskov for supplying the final few missing papers. I maintain similar collections of papers by Peter van Inwagen, John Martin Fischer and Alvin Plantinga.

(Last updated: 2 June 2025)