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    There are infinitely many possible worlds — Carmelics
    Statements
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    Perspectives
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    Home/Modality & Possibility
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    There are infinitely many possible worlds

    Modality & Possibility
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.For any possible world one can conceive, there exists a world worse than it
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    • 2.This regress of worse worlds has no bottom, implying an unbounded number of possible worlds
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Possible worlds are individuated by maximal consistent sets of propositions, and consistency is constrained by necessary logical and mathematical truths.
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    • 2.The space of necessary truths is finite and determinate, bounding the combinatorial space of genuinely distinct maximal consistent descriptions.
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    • 3.If the space of maximal consistent descriptions is bounded, the number of possible worlds cannot be infinite but is at most very large and finite.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Wittgenstein's Tractatus establishes that logical space is defined by the totality of atomic facts and their combinations, not by an open-ended generative process.
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    • 2.If the number of logically independent atomic states of affairs is finite, as Russell and early Wittgenstein assumed, then the number of their combinations is large but strictly finite.
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    • 3.The supporting argument's regress of 'worse worlds' presupposes an infinite evaluative continuum, but ordinal rankings of worlds do not entail the worlds ranked are themselves infinite in number.
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    Topics

    Modality & Possibility

    Connections

    1 topic

    Problem of Evil1 linked

    Related

    For any possible world one can conceive, there exists a world worse than itIf the number of logically independent atomic states of affairs is finite, as Ru...If the space of maximal consistent descriptions is bounded, the number of possib...Possible worlds are individuated by maximal consistent sets of propositions, and...
    +4 moreShow less
    The space of necessary truths is finite and determinate, bounding the combinator...The supporting argument's regress of 'worse worlds' presupposes an infinite eval...This regress of worse worlds has no bottom, implying an unbounded number of poss...Wittgenstein's Tractatus establishes that logical space is defined by the totali...

    Similar

    There are an infinite number of possible worlds96%There are infinitely many possible worlds, each within God's power to ...93%There is only one set of all possible worlds.84%There is only one possible world.82%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: leibniz-modal
    View source passageHide passage
    Leibniz makes clear here his basic view of God's obligation to choose the best world possible, as well as his view that, if there were not a single best world, no world at all would have been brought into existence. At the same time, the argument for the infinity of possible worlds given here is rather comical: (granted, there must be one best world) for any world you can imagine (or find in the pyramid), there is one that is worse. So much for Leibniz the optimist!
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit