I draw the line at P AND ~P, though: just unthinkable.
I’ve heard religious people profess beliefs of this nature. I don’t think they actually believe it, but I don’t think it’s pure belief-in-belief either; I see it as an attempt to explain a deeply unusual subjective experience in poorly suited language. (Which is not to say I think any statements like that are metaphysically true or anything.)
I do think there’s something to “a priori” besides a mere semantic stopsign, though. I could model physically possible worlds with different contents, or logically possible worlds with different physics, but I can’t imagine how I could model (as opposed to loosely imagine) a universe where 2+2=3. Eliezer, would you hold that such a world is actually constructable and modelable in addition to imaginable? Do you think “necessary” and “contingent” or “logically possible”/”impossible” are semantic stopsigns too?
I draw the line at P AND ~P, though: just unthinkable.
I’ve heard religious people profess beliefs of this nature. I don’t think they actually believe it, but I don’t think it’s pure belief-in-belief either; I see it as an attempt to explain a deeply unusual subjective experience in poorly suited language. (Which is not to say I think any statements like that are metaphysically true or anything.)
I do think there’s something to “a priori” besides a mere semantic stopsign, though. I could model physically possible worlds with different contents, or logically possible worlds with different physics, but I can’t imagine how I could model (as opposed to loosely imagine) a universe where 2+2=3. Eliezer, would you hold that such a world is actually constructable and modelable in addition to imaginable? Do you think “necessary” and “contingent” or “logically possible”/”impossible” are semantic stopsigns too?