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Single Idea 10652

[filed under theme 10. Modality / D. Knowledge of Modality / 4. Conceivable as Possible / b. Conceivable but impossible ]

Full Idea

Conceivability may well be a guide to possibility, but literary fantasy is by itself no evidence of conceivability.

Gist of Idea

Conceivability may indicate possibility, but literary fantasy does not

Source

Achille Varzi (Mereology [2003], 2.1)

Book Ref

'Stanford Online Encyclopaedia of Philosophy', ed/tr. Stanford University [plato.stanford.edu], p.5


A Reaction

Very nice. People who cite 'conceivability' in this context often have a disgracefully loose usage for the word. Really, really conceivable is probably our only guide to possibility.


The 11 ideas from Achille Varzi

Mereology need not be nominalist, though it is often taken to be so [Varzi]
Parts may or may not be attached, demarcated, arbitrary, material, extended, spatial or temporal [Varzi]
If 'part' is reflexive, then identity is a limit case of parthood [Varzi]
'Part' stands for a reflexive, antisymmetric and transitive relation [Varzi]
Maybe set theory need not be well-founded [Varzi]
Conceivability may indicate possibility, but literary fantasy does not [Varzi]
The parthood relation will help to define at least seven basic predicates [Varzi]
Are there mereological atoms, and are all objects made of them? [Varzi]
Sameness of parts won't guarantee identity if their arrangement matters [Varzi]
There is something of which everything is part, but no null-thing which is part of everything [Varzi]
'Composition is identity' says multitudes are the reality, loosely composing single things [Varzi]