Title
How to Believe the Impossible
Document Type
Post-Print
Publication Date
1990
Abstract
Can we believe things that could not possibly be true? The world seems full of examples. Mathematicians have "proven" theorems which in fact turn out to be false. People have believed that Hesperus is not Phosphorus, that they themselves are essentially incorporeal, that heat is not molecular motion -- all propositions which have been claimed to be not just false, but necessarily false. Some have even seemed to pride themselves on believing the impossible; Hegel thought contradictions could be true, and Kierkegaard seems to have thought that Christianity, in which he fervently believed, was impossible and absurd.
Identifier
10.1007/BF00368287
Publisher
Kluwer Academic Publishers
Repository Citation
Brown, C. (1990). How to believe the impossible. Philosophical Studies, 58(3), 271-285. doi:10.1007/BF00368287
Publication Information
Philosophical Studies