back to ideas for this text


Single Idea 16426

[from 'The Conscious Mind' by David J.Chalmers, in 10. Modality / A. Necessity / 10. Impossibility ]

Full Idea

If some worlds are metaphysically impossible, it seems that we could never know it. By assumption the information is not available a priori, and a posteriori information only tells us about our world.

Gist of Idea

How can we know the metaphysical impossibilities; the a posteriori only concerns this world

Source

David J.Chalmers (The Conscious Mind [1996], 2.4.2)

Book Reference

Chalmers,David J.: 'The Conscious Mind' [OUP 1997], p.137


A Reaction

You need essentialism to reply to this. If you discover the essence of something, you can predict its possibilities. You discover the natures of the powers and dispositions of actuality.

Related Idea

Idea 16425 Metaphysical necessity is a bizarre, brute and inexplicable constraint on possibilities [Chalmers]