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Full Idea
If some worlds are metaphysically impossible, it seems that we could never know it. By assumption the information is not available a priori, and a posteriori information only tells us about our world.
Gist of Idea
How can we know the metaphysical impossibilities; the a posteriori only concerns this world
Source
David J.Chalmers (The Conscious Mind [1996], 2.4.2)
Book Ref
Chalmers,David J.: 'The Conscious Mind' [OUP 1997], p.137
A Reaction
You need essentialism to reply to this. If you discover the essence of something, you can predict its possibilities. You discover the natures of the powers and dispositions of actuality.
Related Idea
Idea 16425 Metaphysical necessity is a bizarre, brute and inexplicable constraint on possibilities [Chalmers]
| 5998 | From the necessity of the past we can infer the impossibility of what never happens [Diod.Cronus, by White,MJ] |
| 17183 | Things are impossible if they imply contradiction, or their production lacks an external cause [Spinoza] |
| 3946 | A thing is shown to be impossible if a contradiction is demonstrated within its definition [Berkeley] |
| 9428 | Nothing we clearly imagine is absolutely impossible [Hume] |
| 23283 | Necessity implies possibility, but in experience it matters which comes first [Williams,B] |
| 16426 | How can we know the metaphysical impossibilities; the a posteriori only concerns this world [Chalmers] |
| 14377 | Possibilities are manifestations of some power, and impossibilies rest on no powers [Jacobs] |