Possible worlds and individual essences

pp. 17-36

in: , A theory of the absolute, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014

Abstract

Conceivability is an important element of any kind of philosophical analysis or argument. It is a guide to the realm of the possible and, as such, is a type of a priori reflection because we do not need to rely upon the a posteriori justificatory force of experience in order to engage successfully in acts of conceiving. We do not need ordinary experience of something in order to conceive of it because ordinary experience is concerned with the realm of actuality, while conceivability is concerned essentially with the realm of the possible. Consequently, anything empirical is conceivable in much the same way as everything actual is, eo ipso, possible.¹