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Single Idea 22149

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

Full Idea

The scholastic view is that Actuality is our only guide to possibility in the real order. One knows that it is possible to separate A and B if one knows that A and B have actually been separated or are separate.

Gist of Idea

Scholastics assess possibility by what has actually happened in reality

Source

report of Francisco Suárez (Disputationes metaphysicae [1597], Bk VII) by Stephen Boulter - Why Medieval Philosophy Matters 4

Book Ref

Boulter,Stephen: 'Why Medieval Philosophy Matters' [Bloomsbury 2019], p.102

A Reaction

It may be possible to separate A and B even though it has never happened, but it is hard to see how we could know that. (But if I put my pen down where it has never been before, I know I can pick it up again, even though this has not previously happened).

The 16 ideas from 'Disputationes metaphysicae'

16667 Substances are incomplete unless they have modes [Suárez, by Pasnau]
17007 Forms must rule over faculties and accidents, and are the source of action and unity [Suárez]
16780 Partial forms of leaf and fruit are united in the whole form of the tree [Suárez]
16758 The best support for substantial forms is the co-ordinated unity of a natural being [Suárez]
16682 Other things could occupy the same location as an angel [Suárez]
16743 We can get at the essential nature of 'quantity' by knowing bulk and extension [Suárez]
16742 We only know essences through non-essential features, esp. those closest to the essence [Suárez]
16665 There are entities, and then positive 'modes', modifying aspects outside the thing's essence [Suárez]
16666 A mode determines the state and character of a quantity, without adding to it [Suárez]
22143 Identity does not exclude possible or imagined difference [Suárez, by Boulter]
22144 Real Essential distinction: A and B are of different natural kinds [Suárez, by Boulter]
22146 Minor Real distinction: B needs A, but A doesn't need B [Suárez, by Boulter]
22145 Major Real distinction: A and B have independent existences [Suárez, by Boulter]
22147 Conceptual/Mental distinction: one thing can be conceived of in two different ways [Suárez, by Boulter]
22148 Modal distinction: A isn't B or its property, but still needs B [Suárez, by Boulter]
22149 Scholastics assess possibility by what has actually happened in reality [Suárez, by Boulter]