Introduction

The aim of this work is twofold. First, it seeks to recover Ramsey’s original account of conditional sentences. Second, it aims to outline a unified epistemological theory of conditionals, drawing inspiration from Ramsey’s recovered account. This work is divided into two parts: Part I is historical and it deals with Ramsey texts and their interpretation; Part II is systematic and devoted to laying down the groundwork for an updated, Ramsey-inspired theory of conditionals. The two parts are different steps of a single path: from an analysis of the notions involved in the famous footnote—like ‘degree of belief’, ‘contradictories (in a sense)’, ‘knowledge’, ‘laws’—to a reconstruction of Ramsey’s view and its modification into a unified account.