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Re: [ontolog-forum] intangibles (was RE: Why mostclassifications are fuz

To: "[ontolog-forum] " <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: "AzamatAbdoullaev" <abdoul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2011 19:36:22 +0300
Message-id: <75047BCE680F4453AEA822B6F6210B55@personalpc>
The possible worlds make good examples of ontological intangibles.
The notion of possible worlds is as old as ontology itself, remember the 
potentiality-actuality dichotomy (as force and energy). It's two narrow to 
connect it to the modern thinkers, like Lewis or Kripke, who were mostly 
involved with the logical interpretations of possibility, necessity and 
contingency, defining the modal status of propositions in terms possible or 
actual worlds; like if the proposition is true or false, necessary or 
contingent, possible or impossible.
The ontological status, the nature of possible worlds, this is what mostly 
citical here, as the grand issue: if we live in "the worst of all possible 
worlds" or in "the best of all possible worlds".
Besides, we need to distinguish the possible worlds as conceivable, 
imaginable, mental or fictional universes FROM the worlds capable of 
exisisting or happening, where the actual world is just one of the many 
possible worlds.
When somebody states that all the possible world are as real as the actual 
world, he is reasoning on the ontology of possibility. As much as when 
somebody states that all that exists is made of multiverses, each with 
specific physical constraints, as multiple possible universes, parallel 
universes, "alternative universes", "quantum universes", "interpenetrating 
dimensions", "parallel dimensions", "parallel worlds", "alternative 
realities", "alternative timelines", "dimensional planes," and what not.
To my mind, alternative realities are as real as alternative energy, and we 
are capable to create it as a smart sustainable world: 
http://www.eis.com.cy. All what we need - to discover the ontological 
mechanisms of possible worlds :-)    (01)

Azamat Abdoullaev    (02)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Christopher Menzel" <cmenzel@xxxxxxxx>
To: "[ontolog-forum] " <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 12:05 AM
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] intangibles (was RE: Why mostclassifications 
are fuzzy)    (03)


On Jul 19, 2011, at 3:17 AM, sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Dear Matthew,
>
> The point I'm trying to make is that possible worlds don't exist.  They 
> are imaginary.    (04)

That is a perfectly reasonable philosophical opinion, but it is not an 
argument.  Realists about possible worlds argue that they most certainly do 
exist.  They might be wrong, but you can't refute them just by asserting 
that they are.    (05)

> The way you imagine them is to create some hypothesis, theory, axioms, or 
> specifications that generate them.    (06)

Isn't that true of most any theoretical entity?  Quarks?  Strings?  Sets?    (07)

> In short, the starting  hypothesis is intensional.    (08)

Not for possible worlds understood á la Lewis.    (09)

> The possible worlds are useless baggage.  They might give you some 
> pleasure in your imagination.  They might even be useful as illustrations.    (010)

Your reasoning is much too facile. Lewis has provided very powerful 
theoretical arguments for realism about possible worlds (as he understands 
them).  In a nutshell, he shows (very cleverly) how a variety of 
philosophical and semantical problems can be solved in terms of possible 
worlds. He then argues that belief in worlds is justified so long as there 
is a theory that has similar explanatory value without the ontological cost. 
It's a very difficult argument to refute.    (011)

> But the method of forming the initial specification for the worlds is 
> intensional.    (012)

Not on Lewis's approach.    (013)

-chris    (014)


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