[Revised entry by Christopher Menzel on January 31, 2025.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography, notes.html]
Actualism is a widely-held view in the metaphysics of modality that arises in response to the thesis of possibilism. To understand the motivations for possibilism, consider first that most everyone would agree that things might have been different than they are in fact. For example, no one has free soloed the Dawn Wall route up El Capitan in Yosemite National Park and, given the almost superhuman physical ability and mental strength the feat would require and, more importantly, the massive risk it…

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