Introduzione

This volume investigates the categories of reality, possibility, necessity, and contingency across different moments in the history of philosophy, highlighting their semantic plurality and theoretical function within ontology, metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. The contributions, mainly devoted to modern and contemporary thought while also including an engagement with ancient philosophy, show how modal categories provide a privileged perspective from which to examine the relations between reality and possibility, determination and freedom, necessity and contingency. Through different authors and theoretical approaches, the volume thus brings out the enduring philosophical relevance of modality and its capacity to articulate fundamental questions concerning the structure of reality and human experience.