Does conceivability entail possibility?

Question

Like I can imagine a 3-headed dog with fire for eyes, so it's possible it exists or can exist.

If so, then.......
If something is impossible then it must be inconceivable?

mmm hmm
watcha think?

Answer 1

Your mind deciphers an enormous amount of information since you are born. It is feasible that we are able to take pieces of information from various things and fit them together. If you were to break down the three-headed dog with fire eyes, you could imagine numerous eyes on a being because we all have more than one. Imagining a being having more than one body for example is more difficult to fathom, considering beings have one body, yet not impossible. Fire for eyes could be symbolized as having a wicked, temptuous soul. These are just ponderings. You could derive many reasons for imagining such fantasy, or any fantasy. I don't understand why you would assume that since you can imagine something, that that thing must exist somewhere. If people believed in this beast of a dog strongly enough, then perhaps people would see it. However, belief is all you need to witness things sometimes. If your brain thinks that something is or isn't there, that thing will either appear or vanish. That won't be the case with everyone though. Not everyone will see your dog. In fact people reported seeing centaurs in ancient Greece, but do you think one ever existed? This is why we measure things and put them to the scrutiny of a scientific method.

I think the conceivabilty of a thing is a result of mix-matched information compiling into fantasy, not entailing possibility. Just like God, for example.

* I was thinking more about this question and I've concluded that there is nothing you can imagine that doesn't exist. It is a matter of your perception. Your brain calculates everything it has witnessed through the senses from throughout your life. It adds things up. Sometimes correctly, sometimes incorrectly. Most times unconsciously. All those things you've noted do exist when broken down. Dogs exist, eyes exist, fire exists, heads exist. When you put all those together and form a three-headed dog with fire for eyes, well that is just not what all those things will ever equal. That is like saying that 1+2+3=7. 1 is real, 2 is real, 3 is real, but they do not equal 7. If you can prove to me that they do equal 7 and show me your work and then apply it in an experiment, I may be convinced. Hence, you must prove to me that there is a logical reason for the various things you imagine adding up to a three-headed dog with fire for eyes. All of those things exist, they just don't form anything to the beast you've described.

Answer 2

In an infinite universe, anything is possible. Most people's problem is that they cannot distinguish between the merely possible from the probable or likely. You cannot see me, is it possible I am a two-headed tartan skinned visitor from Venus hacking into Yahoo from my orbiting flying saucer? Yes. Is it probable or likely? Not by factors of magnitude I don't care to mess with. This is why lawyers are always asking expert witnesses if something is possible, ask a scientist that he must say yes, for the reason above stated. They are counting on the jury to assume that if a thing is imaginable then it is probable, likely, and, therefore, a reasonable assumption. This is also why anyone suspected of having enough education not to be fooled is routinely banned from jury duty. As to the final question, I proffer a sorites: If anything is possible, then nothing is impossible, therefor, there can be nothing it is impossible to conceive, therefor, nothing is inconceivable.

Answer 3

I think that this is what makes the human mind so great. Most animals see red and yellow, while humans can imagine an orange color between them.

Perhaps, this question is just playing with words that can hardly grasp the truth,,, but I think that they are conveying something very interesting... A child conceives of an evil monster in his closet, while it is possible, it isn't real. While a girl feels safe getting into her car, the reality is that something evil is lurking in the back seat. Possibility, reality, and conceivability are not always related, but that is not to say that they can be, nor is that to say that there isn't some structure there; it is just that it is hard to pin down into theory,, but it is worth trying.

Eisenhower conceived of the light bulb through the possibility he saw in his studies.... but even after being shown it was not possible many times, he finally took an idea and made it a reality... Escalators, space shuttles, airplanes, cars, love. Things, people, and creatures (pure and specially cross-bred ones) exist because we make them and because possibility is the life force that joins atoms together. I don't want to blaspheme on anyone, but to an extant we are all gods both as a united whole and as individuals. We conceptualize, we form and mold, we create, and both suffer and enjoy the output. Conceive on. Today's sci-fi is tomorrow's reality.

Answer 4

Conceivability entails logical possibility i.e. if an idea does not contain any self contradiction then it is logically possible.

However, logical possibility does not entail physical possibility.

Thus one can conceive of a world where negative charges are attracted to each other and opposite ones are repelled. However, the laws of nature that empirically happen to hold in this world make that conceived idea physically impossible.

Answer 5

No. My favorite (but not exclusive) example is
time-travel into the past. This is absolutely impossible,
yet the concept is so intriguing it generates some of
the best science fiction. Just because something is
conceivable (like God or Devil or Santa Claus or Ghosts
or whatever) doesn't make it real or even possible.

Answer 6

Reasearchers in Quantum Theory began to speculate that they were discovering new "things" (aka particles) only after they suggested these particles might exist. This lead them to wonder whether or not the particles where conceived (aka created) by their imaginations and therefore came into existance.

This gives "I think therefore I am" a new spin. It also makes one think that nothing is impossible.

Answer 7

No, I think not. Conceivability is imagination, and reality and imagination are not always the same thing. I can conceive of becoming a billionaire, richer that Bill Gates, but that isn't likely to become a reality.

Answer 8

This conundrum is reminiscent of Anselm's Ontological Argument....which is extremely abstract and I would not regale you with it here. Suffice it to say that it applies only to the conception of God. Your question and its inverse are both false. We can easily conceive of that which is impossible, as well as infinite* possibilities being beyond our ability to conceive.

I recommend reading a brief summary of Anselm's Ontological Argument (found readily through any search engine). It will give you plenty of food for thought.

*Quantum Theory, for example.

Answer 9

It's kind of even more than that: Possibility is limited to conceivability.
What I mean is, if you could simply not imagine something, if no matter what, your brain could simply not imagine it, like a completely new color 100% different from all others, it "wouldn't be there" even if it WAS there.
And I don't mean if you thought something was possible. I mean if you literally could simply not think of it, either being possible or impossible, you would not see it even if it was there.
Go to bed and think about it. =)

Answer 10

you answered your own question. If you can imagine the dog with 3 heads, you can conceive it. But that doesn't make it possible!