The Routledge handbook of modality Introduction. Modal matters : philosophical significance Otávio Bueno and Scott A. Shalkowski Possible worlds Michael De Actualism Karen Bennett Counterfactual conditionals Dorothy Edgington Impossibility and impossible worlds Daniel Nolan Origins of logical space Brian Leftow Essentialism and modality Penelope Mackie De re modality Boris Kment Relativized metaphysical modality : index and context Benj Hellie Adam Russell Murray and Jessica Wilson Ontological dependence grounding and modality Fabrice Correia Modalism Scott A. Shalkowski Modal anti realism John Divers Modal conventionalism Ross Cameron Norms and modality Amie Thomasson The integration challenge Sonia Roca Royes The epistemic idleness of conceivability M. Oreste Fiocco Epistemology the constitutive and the principle based account of modality Christopher Peacocke Counterfactual based approach Tim Williamson Modality and a priori knowledge Albert Casullo Intuition and modality : a disjunctive social account of intuition based justification in the epistemology of modality Anand Vaidya Modality and scientific structuralism Steven French Laws of nature natural necessity and counterfactual conditionals Marc Lange Natural kinds and modality Alexander Bird Modality in physics Samuel C. Fletcher Physical and metaphysical modality Ned Hall Modality in mathematics Øystein Linnebo and Stewart Shapiro Modal set theory Christopher Menzel The logic of metaphysical modality Bob Hale Modality and the plurality of logics Otávio Bueno Ancient Greek modal logic Robin Smith Modality in medieval philosophy Stephen Read Modality in Descartess philosophy Alan Nelson Hume on modality Peter Millican Kant on real possibility Nick Stang Quine on modality Roberta Ballarin Kripke on modality John Burgess. Modality the question of what is possible and what is necessary is a fundamental area of philosophy and philosophical research. The Routledge Handbook of Modality is an outstanding reference source to the key topics problems and debates in this exciting subject and is the first collection of its kind. Comprising thirty five chapters by a team of international contributors the Handbook is divided into seven clear parts: worlds and modality; essentialism ontological dependence and modality; modal anti realism; epistemology of modality; modality in science; modality in logic and mathematics; modality in the history of philosophy. Within these sections the central issues debates and problems are examined including possible worlds essentialism counterfactuals ontological dependence modal fictionalism deflationism the integration challenge conceivability a priori knowledge laws of nature natural kinds and logical necessity. The Routledge Handbook of Modality is essential reading for students and researchers in epistemology metaphysics and philosophy of language. It will also be very useful for those in related fields in philosophy such as philosophy of mathematics logic and philosophy of science.