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Single Idea 3903

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

Full Idea

If there are things which are possible but inconceivable, we must abandon the view, which has had a considerable following since Descartes, that the conceivable is a test of the possible.

Clarification

Warning against deducing possibility and necessity from what we can imagine

Gist of Idea

The conceivable can't be a test of the possible, if there are things which are possible but inconceivable

Source

Roger Scruton (Modern Philosophy:introduction and survey [1994], 25)

Book Ref

Scruton,Roger: 'Modern Philosophy: introduction and survey' [Sinclair-Stevenson 1994], p.355

The 6 ideas with the same theme [possibe despite not being conceivable]:

14039 Above and below us will never appear to be the same, because it is inconceivable [Epicurus]
13172 What we cannot imagine may still exist [Leibniz]
3802 Why pronounce impossible what you cannot imagine? [Dennett]
3903 The conceivable can't be a test of the possible, if there are things which are possible but inconceivable [Scruton]
17958 The apparently metaphysically possible may only be epistemically possible [Vetter]
19268 Inconceivability (implying impossibility) may be failure to conceive, or incoherence [Vaidya]