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Single Idea 15100

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

Full Idea

Imaginability can give us access to conceptual possibility, when we come to believe situations to be conceptually possible by reflecting on their descriptions and seeing no contradiction or incoherence.

Gist of Idea

Imagination reveals conceptual possibility, where descriptions avoid contradiction or incoherence

Source

Sydney Shoemaker (Causal and Metaphysical Necessity [1998], VI)

Book Ref

Shoemaker,Sydney: 'Identity, Cause and Mind' [OUP 2003], p.424


A Reaction

If take the absence of contradiction to indicate 'logical' possibility, but the absence of incoherence is more interesting, even if it is a bit vague. He is talking of 'situations', which I take to be features of reality. A priori synthetic?