Talk:Possibility

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Philosophy: Logic

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Untitled[edit]

possibility- condition or fact of being possible

written 2008 1 / 14 by: kindyrun249

Several logical problems[edit]

The article as I found it began:

Possibility is the condition or fact of being possible.

This definition is circular because the clause that defines the word contains the word being defined. A better definition would be

A possibility is an unrealized state of affairs whose conditions for realization, with respect to some temporal moment, are of undetermined or indeterminate reality.

It continues:

Latin origins of the word hint at ability.

The Latin word posse does not hint at anything, but simply means "to be able to." The next paragraph runs:

Possibility may refer to:

Possibility is the thing, and things do not refer to other things, only words do. The issue is not what the word "possibility" denotes, but rather what types of possibility there are. Here is the first in the list of types:

Probability, the measure of the likelihood that an event will occur

A probability in general is not a type of possibility, but an unrealized state of affairs the chances of whose realization are greater than the chances of its continued lack of realization. As defined above, "probability" is understood to be the measurable chances of realization of an unrealized state of affairs.

The list continues:

Epistemic possibility, a topic in philosophy and modal logic

Possibility theory, a mathematical theory for dealing with certain types of uncertainty and is an alternative to probability theory

Subjunctive possibility, (also called alethic possibility) is a form of modality studied in modal logic.

Logical possibility, a proposition that will depend on the system of logic being considered, rather than on the violation of any single rule.

Possibility theory is not a type of possibility, so it does not belong on the list. Neither EP nor SP is defined, but only identified as a topic. The definition of LP is obscure. I suggest the following definitions:

An epistemic possibility is the determination of the truth or falsity of a proposition for which no states of affairs rules out either alternative on conceptual or empirical grounds. No one knows whether Goldbach's conjecture is true or false.

A subjunctive possibility is a counterfactual state of affairs, i.e., a state of affairs that was part of a set of alternative unrealized states of affairs in the past, only one of which was in fact realized and which had real consequences, but from whose conjectural realization one can identify some consequences. Had Martin Luther King not been assassinated, the riots of the summer of 1968 would not have happened is a counterfactual statement.

A logical possibility is an unrealized state of affairs that the concepts of the things in that state of affairs neither entail nor rule out. Wordwright (talk) 03:24, 1 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]