Using Counterfactuals to Convince a Jury

How to use modal reasoning to persuade a jury when the facts are not on your side.

In philosophical discourse, a counterfactual is a type of “modal” statement; it concerns possibility or necessity. Specifically, a counterfactual is a type of modal statement which asks the listener to imagine an alternative state of affairs. There are many issues remaining to discuss the particular semantic, epistemic, and metaphysical qualities of counterfactuals, but I propose to bracket those concerns and show how the careful legal practitioner may use modal discourse to persuade juries by way of example of a recent trial I won in Midland, Texas.

David Lewis’s beard rocks in all possible worlds.