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Full Idea
It is not very natural to say of that which is true that it is also possible. ...What is true was possible - but whether it still is a potency of the world is not certain.
Gist of Idea
What is true used to be possible, but it may no longer be so
Source
G.H. von Wright (Logic and Epistemology of Causal Relations [1973], §5)
Book Ref
'Causation', ed/tr. Sosa,E. /Tooley,M. [OUP 1993], p.111
A Reaction
A simple and rather important distinction. Before encountering this, I would certainly have been happy to affirm that the actual is possible, but actually it may not be. The power to create differs from the power to sustain. Could God re-create the world?
Related Idea
Idea 13991 Presentism has the problem that if Socrates ceases to exist, so do propositions about him [Markosian]
| 8366 | The very notion of a cause depends on agency and action [Wright,GHv] |
| 8360 | We must further analyse conditions for causation, into quantifiers or modal concepts [Wright,GHv] |
| 8361 | What is true used to be possible, but it may no longer be so [Wright,GHv] |
| 8362 | We give regularities a causal character by subjecting them to experiment [Wright,GHv] |
| 8363 | p is a cause and q an effect (not vice versa) if manipulations of p change q [Wright,GHv] |
| 8364 | We can imagine controlling floods by controlling rain, but not vice versa [Wright,GHv] |
| 8365 | Some laws are causal (Ohm's Law), but others are conceptual principles (conservation of energy) [Wright,GHv] |