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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
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] |