But I cannot logically ground that belief in anything, and I accept that everything may change tomorrow - the sun not rise, people start floating in the air, pencils spontaneously combusting, enormous otters dancing the can-can inside a thimble, etc. — andrewk
If I believe nature is governed by laws then I believe that the existence of anything at all, otters, thimbles or whatever you like, and the possible relations between, would cease the moment the laws that enable their existence ceased to govern. — John
Also, I kind of wonder what's special about the future such that we could suppose it to be radically different than the past. Is it just because we haven't experienced it yet? — Marchesk
The point is that, at any time, it is possible, that the world may be radically different. But that doesn't mean that it it is. — TheWillowOfDarkness
When we talk about possibility, we are discussing what's beyond the empirical, what the world cannot and cannot do based on logical reasoning, as a way of discounting the incoherent states which cannot (as opposed to "do not" ) exist. — TheWillowOfDarkness
I have. Up until last Tuesday, the USA had operated as a reasonably well-intentioned, albeit heavily flawed, democracy and world citizen. Then it suddenly elected a fascist as president. — andrewk
In fact, that's a problem for the Humeans. Why can't we do those things? — Marchesk
Possibility is not actuality. There is no problem for the Humeans. They never claimed radical difference has occurred or must occur, only that it might. We can't do those things becasue, so far as we've encountered, they are only a possibility. To do them, they would have to be actual. And indeed, this means we might never do them at all. — TheWillowOfDarkness
This Humean can't see any problem, because we don't know that we can't do those things. All we know is that nobody has managed to do them so far - from which we can infer nothing about what might happen in the future.In fact, that's a problem for the Humeans. Why can't we do those things? — Marchesk
This Humean can't see any problem, because we don't know that we can't do those things. All we know is that nobody has managed to do them so far - from which we can infer nothing about what might happen in the future. — andrewk
The current theory of Thermodynamics says it is impossible. But one thing we mostly believe is that all of our current theories are wrong, and will be replaced by newer, better theories over time. — andrewk
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