How to believe the impossible

Philosophical Studies 58 (3):271-285 (1990)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Can we believe things that could not possibly be true? The world seems full of examples. Mathematicians have "proven" theorems which in fact turn out to be false. People have believed that Hesperus is not Phosphorus, that they themselves are essentially incorporeal, that heat is not molecular motion--all propositions which have been claimed to be not just false, but necessarily false. Some have even seemed to pride themselves on believing the impossible; Hegel thought contradictions could be true, and Kierkegaard seems to have thought that Christianity, in which he fervently believed, was impossible and absurd.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Reductive theories of modality.Theodore Sider - 2003 - In Michael J. Loux & Dean W. Zimmerman (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics. Oxford University Press. pp. 180-208.
Believing the impossible.Curtis Brown - 1991 - Synthese 89 (3):353-364.
Mundos imposibles.Pescador José Hierro - 1985 - Theoria 1 (1):143-157.
Real impossible worlds : the bounds of possibility.Ira Georgia Kiourti - 2010 - Dissertation, University of St Andrews
Chrysippus’s response to Diodorus’s master argument.Harry A. Ide - 1992 - History and Philosophy of Logic 13 (2):133-148.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
113 (#145,559)

6 months
4 (#320,252)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Curtis Brown
Trinity University

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

A Proposed Solution to a Puzzle about Belief.Ruth Barcan Marcus - 1981 - Midwest Studies in Philosophy 6 (1):501-510.
Is it Possible to have Contradictory Beliefs?Richard Foley - 1986 - Midwest Studies in Philosophy 10 (1):327-355.

Add more references