What is actual is a metaphysical necessity?
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3
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You look out of the window and it's raining. You grab a bottle and pour some water into a glass. You probably don't consider these events as necessary: it could have been a sunny day and you were free not to pour water into the glass. If you open a box and find a book inside it, you don't think that your act has affected the content, but just that the box contained a book and you didn't know it.
These two cases, however, are not so different: if it's not possible to change the past (take this a premise), it follows that once an event happened, it could not be otherwise from how it happened.
There is a book in the box, tomorrow it will rain, you'll pour some water in the glass... what's common between these facts is just your ignorance of a certain portion of space-time. It's raining, you pour the water - the fact that it didn't happen otherwise proves that these were the only possibilities (at least in this universe or hyper-time).
What happened is therefore necessary, for the simple fact that it's impossible that an event that took place in one way took place in another. After all, you know for sure that something will happen tomorrow, this is necessary - but you don't know what.
logic metaphysics ontology time
asked 2 hours ago
Francesco D'Isa
491112
add a comment |
up vote
3
down vote
favorite
You look out of the window and it's raining. You grab a bottle and pour some water into a glass. You probably don't consider these events as necessary: it could have been a sunny day and you were free not to pour water into the glass. If you open a box and find a book inside it, you don't think that your act has affected the content, but just that the box contained a book and you didn't know it.
These two cases, however, are not so different: if it's not possible to change the past (take this a premise), it follows that once an event happened, it could not be otherwise from how it happened.
There is a book in the box, tomorrow it will rain, you'll pour some water in the glass... what's common between these facts is just your ignorance of a certain portion of space-time. It's raining, you pour the water - the fact that it didn't happen otherwise proves that these were the only possibilities (at least in this universe or hyper-time).
What happened is therefore necessary, for the simple fact that it's impossible that an event that took place in one way took place in another. After all, you know for sure that something will happen tomorrow, this is necessary - but you don't know what.
logic metaphysics ontology time
asked 2 hours ago
Francesco D'Isa
491112
1
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism
– Chris Degnen
2 hours ago
@ChrisDegnen thank you, I'm aware of it, the question is related but not exhausted by this idea.
– Francesco D'Isa
1 hour ago
add a comment |
up vote
3
down vote
favorite
up vote
3
down vote
favorite
You look out of the window and it's raining. You grab a bottle and pour some water into a glass. You probably don't consider these events as necessary: it could have been a sunny day and you were free not to pour water into the glass. If you open a box and find a book inside it, you don't think that your act has affected the content, but just that the box contained a book and you didn't know it.
These two cases, however, are not so different: if it's not possible to change the past (take this a premise), it follows that once an event happened, it could not be otherwise from how it happened.
There is a book in the box, tomorrow it will rain, you'll pour some water in the glass... what's common between these facts is just your ignorance of a certain portion of space-time. It's raining, you pour the water - the fact that it didn't happen otherwise proves that these were the only possibilities (at least in this universe or hyper-time).
What happened is therefore necessary, for the simple fact that it's impossible that an event that took place in one way took place in another. After all, you know for sure that something will happen tomorrow, this is necessary - but you don't know what.
logic metaphysics ontology time
asked 2 hours ago
Francesco D'Isa
491112
You look out of the window and it's raining. You grab a bottle and pour some water into a glass. You probably don't consider these events as necessary: it could have been a sunny day and you were free not to pour water into the glass. If you open a box and find a book inside it, you don't think that your act has affected the content, but just that the box contained a book and you didn't know it.
These two cases, however, are not so different: if it's not possible to change the past (take this a premise), it follows that once an event happened, it could not be otherwise from how it happened.
There is a book in the box, tomorrow it will rain, you'll pour some water in the glass... what's common between these facts is just your ignorance of a certain portion of space-time. It's raining, you pour the water - the fact that it didn't happen otherwise proves that these were the only possibilities (at least in this universe or hyper-time).
What happened is therefore necessary, for the simple fact that it's impossible that an event that took place in one way took place in another. After all, you know for sure that something will happen tomorrow, this is necessary - but you don't know what.
logic metaphysics ontology time
logic metaphysics ontology time
asked 2 hours ago
Francesco D'Isa
491112
asked 2 hours ago
Francesco D'Isa
491112
edited 1 hour ago
asked 2 hours ago
Francesco D'Isa
491112
asked 2 hours ago
Francesco D'Isa
491112
asked 2 hours ago
Francesco D'Isa
491112
491112
1
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism
– Chris Degnen
2 hours ago
@ChrisDegnen thank you, I'm aware of it, the question is related but not exhausted by this idea.
– Francesco D'Isa
1 hour ago
add a comment |
1
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism
– Chris Degnen
2 hours ago
@ChrisDegnen thank you, I'm aware of it, the question is related but not exhausted by this idea.
– Francesco D'Isa
1 hour ago
1
1
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism
– Chris Degnen
2 hours ago
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism
– Chris Degnen
2 hours ago
@ChrisDegnen thank you, I'm aware of it, the question is related but not exhausted by this idea.
– Francesco D'Isa
1 hour ago
@ChrisDegnen thank you, I'm aware of it, the question is related but not exhausted by this idea.
– Francesco D'Isa
1 hour ago
add a comment |
1 Answer
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4
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I suggest a distinction. If X happened - you poured a glass of water on December 13 2018 at 10.57 hrs - the truth that it happened is a necessary truth in the sense that it is impossible for that historical truth to be false now or at any future time.
However, to introduce the distinction, it does not follow that your pouring that glass of water was a necessary event at that time. For all I know we may live in a world of total contingency where anything can and does happen undeterministically. You might even have had free will in a deterministic universe such that you had a choice totally unconditioned by your situation for action and the laws of nature (if there are any).
In such scenarios your action was not necessitated but, once it had been done, it was necessarily true, and in that sense is a necessary truth, that you had done that action.
Note
'Necessity' is not a notion I generally use but I suppress my reservations in the interests of the question.
answered 2 hours ago
Geoffrey Thomas♦
22.6k22089
Thank you for your interesting answer! I mostly agree. The event can be undeterministic, but in the sense that we can't predict it. Once it has happened, in what sense it could be otherwise? Obviously it could not, since it was not. I think this is a good way to think it: I know for sure that something will happen tomorrow, but I don't know what
– Francesco D'Isa
1 hour ago
1
@Franceso D'Isa. I entirely agree - it was what I was trying to say. An event may not occur of necessity (and hence be in some sense unpredictable) but once it has occurred it is necessarily true that it has occurred. The statement that it has occurred is in this sense a necessary truth. Best - GLT
– Geoffrey Thomas♦
1 hour ago
add a comment |
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1 Answer
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up vote
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I suggest a distinction. If X happened - you poured a glass of water on December 13 2018 at 10.57 hrs - the truth that it happened is a necessary truth in the sense that it is impossible for that historical truth to be false now or at any future time.
However, to introduce the distinction, it does not follow that your pouring that glass of water was a necessary event at that time. For all I know we may live in a world of total contingency where anything can and does happen undeterministically. You might even have had free will in a deterministic universe such that you had a choice totally unconditioned by your situation for action and the laws of nature (if there are any).
In such scenarios your action was not necessitated but, once it had been done, it was necessarily true, and in that sense is a necessary truth, that you had done that action.
Note
'Necessity' is not a notion I generally use but I suppress my reservations in the interests of the question.
answered 2 hours ago
Geoffrey Thomas♦
22.6k22089
Thank you for your interesting answer! I mostly agree. The event can be undeterministic, but in the sense that we can't predict it. Once it has happened, in what sense it could be otherwise? Obviously it could not, since it was not. I think this is a good way to think it: I know for sure that something will happen tomorrow, but I don't know what
– Francesco D'Isa
1 hour ago
1
@Franceso D'Isa. I entirely agree - it was what I was trying to say. An event may not occur of necessity (and hence be in some sense unpredictable) but once it has occurred it is necessarily true that it has occurred. The statement that it has occurred is in this sense a necessary truth. Best - GLT
– Geoffrey Thomas♦
1 hour ago
add a comment |
up vote
4
down vote
I suggest a distinction. If X happened - you poured a glass of water on December 13 2018 at 10.57 hrs - the truth that it happened is a necessary truth in the sense that it is impossible for that historical truth to be false now or at any future time.
However, to introduce the distinction, it does not follow that your pouring that glass of water was a necessary event at that time. For all I know we may live in a world of total contingency where anything can and does happen undeterministically. You might even have had free will in a deterministic universe such that you had a choice totally unconditioned by your situation for action and the laws of nature (if there are any).
In such scenarios your action was not necessitated but, once it had been done, it was necessarily true, and in that sense is a necessary truth, that you had done that action.
Note
'Necessity' is not a notion I generally use but I suppress my reservations in the interests of the question.
answered 2 hours ago
Geoffrey Thomas♦
22.6k22089
Thank you for your interesting answer! I mostly agree. The event can be undeterministic, but in the sense that we can't predict it. Once it has happened, in what sense it could be otherwise? Obviously it could not, since it was not. I think this is a good way to think it: I know for sure that something will happen tomorrow, but I don't know what
– Francesco D'Isa
1 hour ago
1
@Franceso D'Isa. I entirely agree - it was what I was trying to say. An event may not occur of necessity (and hence be in some sense unpredictable) but once it has occurred it is necessarily true that it has occurred. The statement that it has occurred is in this sense a necessary truth. Best - GLT
– Geoffrey Thomas♦
1 hour ago
add a comment |
up vote
4
down vote
up vote
4
down vote
I suggest a distinction. If X happened - you poured a glass of water on December 13 2018 at 10.57 hrs - the truth that it happened is a necessary truth in the sense that it is impossible for that historical truth to be false now or at any future time.
However, to introduce the distinction, it does not follow that your pouring that glass of water was a necessary event at that time. For all I know we may live in a world of total contingency where anything can and does happen undeterministically. You might even have had free will in a deterministic universe such that you had a choice totally unconditioned by your situation for action and the laws of nature (if there are any).
In such scenarios your action was not necessitated but, once it had been done, it was necessarily true, and in that sense is a necessary truth, that you had done that action.
Note
'Necessity' is not a notion I generally use but I suppress my reservations in the interests of the question.
answered 2 hours ago
Geoffrey Thomas♦
22.6k22089
I suggest a distinction. If X happened - you poured a glass of water on December 13 2018 at 10.57 hrs - the truth that it happened is a necessary truth in the sense that it is impossible for that historical truth to be false now or at any future time.
However, to introduce the distinction, it does not follow that your pouring that glass of water was a necessary event at that time. For all I know we may live in a world of total contingency where anything can and does happen undeterministically. You might even have had free will in a deterministic universe such that you had a choice totally unconditioned by your situation for action and the laws of nature (if there are any).
In such scenarios your action was not necessitated but, once it had been done, it was necessarily true, and in that sense is a necessary truth, that you had done that action.
Note
'Necessity' is not a notion I generally use but I suppress my reservations in the interests of the question.
answered 2 hours ago
Geoffrey Thomas♦
22.6k22089
answered 2 hours ago
Geoffrey Thomas♦
22.6k22089
answered 2 hours ago
Geoffrey Thomas♦
22.6k22089
answered 2 hours ago
Geoffrey Thomas♦
22.6k22089
22.6k22089
Thank you for your interesting answer! I mostly agree. The event can be undeterministic, but in the sense that we can't predict it. Once it has happened, in what sense it could be otherwise? Obviously it could not, since it was not. I think this is a good way to think it: I know for sure that something will happen tomorrow, but I don't know what
– Francesco D'Isa
1 hour ago
1
@Franceso D'Isa. I entirely agree - it was what I was trying to say. An event may not occur of necessity (and hence be in some sense unpredictable) but once it has occurred it is necessarily true that it has occurred. The statement that it has occurred is in this sense a necessary truth. Best - GLT
– Geoffrey Thomas♦
1 hour ago
add a comment |
Thank you for your interesting answer! I mostly agree. The event can be undeterministic, but in the sense that we can't predict it. Once it has happened, in what sense it could be otherwise? Obviously it could not, since it was not. I think this is a good way to think it: I know for sure that something will happen tomorrow, but I don't know what
– Francesco D'Isa
1 hour ago
1
@Franceso D'Isa. I entirely agree - it was what I was trying to say. An event may not occur of necessity (and hence be in some sense unpredictable) but once it has occurred it is necessarily true that it has occurred. The statement that it has occurred is in this sense a necessary truth. Best - GLT
– Geoffrey Thomas♦
1 hour ago
Thank you for your interesting answer! I mostly agree. The event can be undeterministic, but in the sense that we can't predict it. Once it has happened, in what sense it could be otherwise? Obviously it could not, since it was not. I think this is a good way to think it: I know for sure that something will happen tomorrow, but I don't know what
– Francesco D'Isa
1 hour ago
Thank you for your interesting answer! I mostly agree. The event can be undeterministic, but in the sense that we can't predict it. Once it has happened, in what sense it could be otherwise? Obviously it could not, since it was not. I think this is a good way to think it: I know for sure that something will happen tomorrow, but I don't know what
– Francesco D'Isa
1 hour ago
1
1
@Franceso D'Isa. I entirely agree - it was what I was trying to say. An event may not occur of necessity (and hence be in some sense unpredictable) but once it has occurred it is necessarily true that it has occurred. The statement that it has occurred is in this sense a necessary truth. Best - GLT
– Geoffrey Thomas♦
1 hour ago
@Franceso D'Isa. I entirely agree - it was what I was trying to say. An event may not occur of necessity (and hence be in some sense unpredictable) but once it has occurred it is necessarily true that it has occurred. The statement that it has occurred is in this sense a necessary truth. Best - GLT
– Geoffrey Thomas♦
1 hour ago
add a comment |
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1
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism
– Chris Degnen
2 hours ago
@ChrisDegnen thank you, I'm aware of it, the question is related but not exhausted by this idea.
– Francesco D'Isa
1 hour ago