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Single Idea 13970

[filed under theme 10. Modality / D. Knowledge of Modality / 4. Conceivable as Possible / a. Conceivable as possible ]

Full Idea

Kripke's first (superior) route to necessary a posteriori has a sharp distinction between how the universe could conceivably and really be. ..On this picture conceivability is a fallible but useful guide, when combined with knowledge of actuality.

Gist of Idea

Kripke gets to the necessary a posteriori by only allowing conceivability when combined with actuality

Source

report of Saul A. Kripke (Naming and Necessity lectures [1970]) by Scott Soames - Significance of the Kripkean Nec A Posteriori p.168

Book Ref

Soames,Scott: 'Philosophical Essays 2:Significance of Language' [Princeton 2009], p.168

A Reaction

[compressed from p.168 and 170] To dismiss conceivability is ridiculous (see Williamson on that), and this formula of Soames sound right. To understand possibility, you have to study actuality (across time and space). Study history!

The 26 ideas with the same theme [ if conceivable then it is possible]:

22149 Scholastics assess possibility by what has actually happened in reality [Suárez, by Boulter]
4818 People who are ignorant of true causes imagine anything can change into anything else [Spinoza]
20310 Error does not result from imagining, but from lacking the evidence of impossibility [Spinoza]
23487 What is thinkable is possible [Wittgenstein]
5819 Conceivability is no proof of possibility [Putnam]
5478 Imagination tests what is possible for all we know, not true possibility [Ellis]
15098 Empirical evidence shows that imagining a phenomenon can show it is possible [Shoemaker]
15100 Imagination reveals conceptual possibility, where descriptions avoid contradiction or incoherence [Shoemaker]
15764 'Conceivable' is either not-provably-false, or compatible with what we know? [Shoemaker]
13967 Kripke's essentialist necessary a posteriori opened the gap between conceivable and really possible [Soames on Kripke]
13970 Kripke gets to the necessary a posteriori by only allowing conceivability when combined with actuality [Kripke, by Soames]
14659 We can imagine being beetles or alligators, so it is possible we might have such bodies [Plantinga]
16522 It is hard or impossible to think of Caesar as not human [Wiggins]
16473 Modal Rationalism: conceivability gives a priori access to modal truths [Chalmers, by Stalnaker]
19258 Evaluate primary possibility from some world, and secondary possibility from this world [Chalmers, by Vaidya]
13963 Maybe logical possibility does imply conceivability - by an ideal mind [Chalmers]
16536 Williamson can't base metaphysical necessity on the psychology of causal counterfactuals [Lowe on Williamson]
9596 We scorn imagination as a test of possibility, forgetting its role in counterfactuals [Williamson]
18853 A proposition is 'correctly' conceivable if an ominiscient being could conceive it [Rosen]
15167 Empiricism explores necessities and concept-limits by imagining negations of truths [Sidelle]
15177 Contradictoriness limits what is possible and what is imaginable [Sidelle]
9505 Empiricist saw imaginability and possibility as close, but now they seem remote [Bird]
14606 Only ideal conceivability could indicate what is possible [Schaffer,J]
16978 If conceivability is a priori coherence, that implies possibility [Tahko]
19440 How do you know you have conceived a thing deeply enough to assess its possibility? [Vaidya]
19267 Define conceivable; how reliable is it; does inconceivability help; and what type of possibility results? [Vaidya]