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Should we allow for the possibility of necessarily unexercised abilities? A new route to rejecting the poss-ability principle
Stockholm University, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Philosophy. Utrecht University, The Netherlands; Institute for Futures Studies, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5830-3432
Number of Authors: 12023 (English)In: Inquiry, ISSN 0020-174X, E-ISSN 1502-3923Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

Most analyses of can and abilities accept what is known as the poss-ability principle (i.e. that an agent S is able to Φ only if it is possible for S to Φ). In this paper, I devise a new route to rejecting the poss-ability principle. I argue that the poss-ability principle is incompatible with some kind of agent, such as God; that the poss-ability principle has normatively unacceptable consequences (granted the existence of a certain kind of evil agent); and that analyses of abilities or ‘can’ based on the poss-ability principle are conceptually flawed.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2023.
Keywords [en]
Ability, can, impossibility, poss-ability principle
National Category
Philosophy
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-223925DOI: 10.1080/0020174X.2023.2250390ISI: 001058148900001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85168693142OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-223925DiVA, id: diva2:1815789
Available from: 2023-11-30 Created: 2023-11-30 Last updated: 2023-11-30

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Lundgren, Björn

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