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Single Idea 20832

[filed under theme 10. Modality / B. Possibility / 1. Possibility ]

Full Idea

The Master Argument: these conflict 1) what is past and true is necessary, 2) the impossible does not follow from the possible, 3) something possible neither is nor will be true. Hence only that which is or will be true is possible.

Gist of Idea

The Master Argument seems to prove that only what will happen is possible

Source

report of Diodorus Cronus (fragments/reports [c.300 BCE]) by Epictetus - The Discourses 2.19.1

Book Ref

'The Stoics Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B/Gerson,L.P. [Hackett 2008], p.102

A Reaction

[Epictetus goes on to discuss views about which of the three should be given up] It is possible there will be a sea fight tomorrow; tomorrow comes, and no sea fight; so there was necessarily no sea fight; so the impossible followed from the possible.

The 41 ideas with the same theme [general ideas about what is possible]:

15779 Possibility is when the necessity of the contrary is false [Aristotle]
15769 Anything which is possible either exists or will come into existence [Aristotle]
22518 The actual must be possible, because it occurred [Aristotle]
20832 The Master Argument seems to prove that only what will happen is possible [Diod.Cronus, by Epictetus]
20790 A proposition is possible if it is true when nothing stops it being true [Stoic school, by Diog. Laertius]
22142 In future, only logical limits can be placed on divine omnipotence [Anon (Par), by Boulter]
12779 There is a reason why not every possible thing exists [Leibniz]
13084 How can things be incompatible, if all positive terms seem to be compatible? [Leibniz]
5566 Is the possible greater than the actual, and the actual greater than the necessary? [Kant]
18795 A concept is logically possible if non-contradictory (but may not be actually possible) [Kant]
5613 The analytic mark of possibility is that it does not generate a contradiction [Kant]
21410 That a concept is not self-contradictory does not make what it represents possible [Kant]
14786 Some logical possibility concerns single propositions, but there is also compatibility between propositions [Peirce]
22308 Only the actual exists, so possibilities always reduce to actuality after full analysis [Russell]
8361 What is true used to be possible, but it may no longer be so [Wright,GHv]
15782 Quine wants identity and individuation-conditions for possibilia [Quine, by Lycan]
15542 All possibilities are recombinations of properties in the actual world [Armstrong, by Lewis]
10269 Mathematics eliminates possibility, as being simultaneous actuality in sets [Putnam]
5479 Scientific essentialists say science should define the limits of the possible [Ellis]
8554 Possible difference across worlds depends on difference across time in the actual world [Shoemaker]
17059 Unicorns are vague, so no actual or possible creature could count as a unicorn [Kripke]
3697 The concept of possibility is prior to that of necessity [Bonjour]
12653 There's statistical, logical, nomological, conceptual and metaphysical possibility [Fodor]
11963 What is the truthmaker for a non-existent possible? [Molnar]
9212 Possible states of affairs are not propositions; a proposition can't be a state of affairs! [Fine,K]
15568 When we consider possibilities, there must be something we are considering [Polt]
16131 The metaphysically possible is what acceptable principles and categories will permit [Lowe]
4195 It is impossible to reach a valid false conclusion from true premises, so reason itself depends on possibility [Lowe]
7801 Possibilities can be logical, theoretical, physical, economic or human [Girle]
5739 Sometimes we want to specify in what ways a thing is possible [Melia]
8941 We can't explain 'possibility' in terms of 'possible' worlds [Fisher]
14376 States of affairs are only possible if some substance could initiate a causal chain to get there [Jacobs]
14578 Possibility might be non-contradiction, or recombinations of the actual, or truth in possible worlds [Mumford/Anjum]
18824 Since possibilities are properties of the world, calling 'red' the determination of a determinable seems right [Rumfitt]
18828 If two possibilities can't share a determiner, they are incompatible [Rumfitt]
17955 Possible worlds allow us to talk about degrees of possibility [Vetter]
17957 Maybe possibility is constituted by potentiality [Vetter]
19378 Early modern possibility is what occurs sometime; for Leibniz, it is what is not contradictory [Arthur,R]
19010 All possibility is anchored in the potentiality of individual objects [Vetter]
19013 Possibility is a generalised abstraction from the potentiality of its bearer [Vetter]
19028 Possibilities are potentialities of actual things, but abstracted from their location [Vetter]