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9505 | Empiricist saw imaginability and possibility as close, but now they seem remote [Bird] |
Full Idea: Whereas the link between imaginability and possibility was once held, under the influence of empiricism, to be close, it is now widely held to be very remote. | |
From: Alexander Bird (Nature's Metaphysics [2007], 8) | |
A reaction: Tim Williamson nicely argues the opposite - that assessment of possibility is an adjunct of our ability to think counterfactually, which is precisely an operation of the imagination. Big error is possible, but how else could we do it? |