Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome | |||
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Possibility, philosophy: something is possible if it cannot be excluded. This has to be distinguished from the concept of contingency that expresses that something could have been different._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
Author | Concept | Summary/Quotes | Sources |
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D. Dennett on Possibility - Dictionary of Arguments
I 140 Possible objects/Unrealized possibilities/Individuation/Identification/Quine/Dennett: Quine asks: The possible fat man in the entrance and the possible bald man in the entrance: are they the same possible man, or there are two different possible men? Would their similarity make them into one? Are no two possible things equal? >Possibilia. I 141 Possibility/Dennett: Degrees: from weak to strong: 1) logical , 2) physical, 3) biological, 4) historical - (>stronger/weaker: >strength of theories). - Problem: E.g. >time travel: how to distinguish logical and physical possibility? I 162 Possibility/Dennett: Lewis: pro graded possibility (Dennett dito). Problem: not the same as accessibility within the >Library of Babel (or Mendel ) - this is greater than the universe._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Dennett I D. Dennett Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, New York 1995 German Edition: Darwins gefährliches Erbe Hamburg 1997 Dennett II D. Dennett Kinds of Minds, New York 1996 German Edition: Spielarten des Geistes Gütersloh 1999 Dennett III Daniel Dennett "COG: Steps towards consciousness in robots" In Bewusstein, Thomas Metzinger, Paderborn/München/Wien/Zürich 1996 Dennett IV Daniel Dennett "Animal Consciousness. What Matters and Why?", in: D. C. Dennett, Brainchildren. Essays on Designing Minds, Cambridge/MA 1998, pp. 337-350 In Der Geist der Tiere, D Perler/M. Wild, Frankfurt/M. 2005 |