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Single Idea 16522
[filed under theme 10. Modality / D. Knowledge of Modality / 4. Conceivable as Possible / a. Conceivable as possible
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Full Idea
It is hard or impossible to conceive of Caesar's not being a man (human).
Gist of Idea
It is hard or impossible to think of Caesar as not human
Source
David Wiggins (Sameness and Substance [1980], 4.5)
Book Ref
Wiggins,David: 'Sameness and Substance' [Blackwell 1980], p.117
A Reaction
So is it 'hard' or is it 'impossible'? Older generations of philosophers simply didn't read enough science fiction. Any short story could feature Caesar's failure to be a man. His assassination was a disaster for the Martian invasion of 44 BCE.
The
26 ideas
with the same theme
[ if conceivable then it is possible]:
22149
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Scholastics assess possibility by what has actually happened in reality
[Suárez, by Boulter]
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4818
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People who are ignorant of true causes imagine anything can change into anything else
[Spinoza]
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20310
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Error does not result from imagining, but from lacking the evidence of impossibility
[Spinoza]
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23487
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What is thinkable is possible
[Wittgenstein]
|
5819
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Conceivability is no proof of possibility
[Putnam]
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5478
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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]
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15100
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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
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Kripke's essentialist necessary a posteriori opened the gap between conceivable and really possible
[Soames on Kripke]
|
13970
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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
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It is hard or impossible to think of Caesar as not human
[Wiggins]
|
16473
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Modal Rationalism: conceivability gives a priori access to modal truths
[Chalmers, by Stalnaker]
|
19258
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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]
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9596
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We scorn imagination as a test of possibility, forgetting its role in counterfactuals
[Williamson]
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18853
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A proposition is 'correctly' conceivable if an ominiscient being could conceive it
[Rosen]
|
15167
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Empiricism explores necessities and concept-limits by imagining negations of truths
[Sidelle]
|
15177
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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]
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19440
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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]
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