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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Robert Adams on Possibility - Dictionary of Arguments
Stalnaker I 34 Possibility/Robert Adams: Thesis: Possibility is rather holistic than atomistic in the sense that what is possible is only part of a possible totally determined world. ("Possible completely determinate world"). >Possible worlds/Adams. Stalnaker: so far, however, our reflections do not imply that any consistent set of propositions is a subset of a world history. For the following (W4) does not follow from them, but must be added as an addition: (W4) Each consistent set is a subset of a maximum consistent set. Possible world/proposition/reduction/Stalnaker: we have two types of reduction: a) Reduction of possible worlds on propositions. b) Reduction of propositions to possible worlds. >Possible worlds/Lewis, >Propositions, >Reduction. The two are not equivalent. Of course, they differ in terms of what is to be the basic concept. >Possible worlds/Adams, >World-story theory._____________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. |
Stalnaker I R. Stalnaker Ways a World may be Oxford New York 2003 |