可想象性与可能性（英文）

本文的讨论围绕着“想象障碍迷思”这一议题,即为什么人们对某些反事实情境存在想象障碍,而展开。本文首先对BrianWeatherson 的“In-Virtue-Of Hypothesis”给出了批评,并提出人们对某些反事实情境存在想象障碍是因为那些反事实情境在概念上是不可能的——概念上不可能的情境,也仅有概念上不可能的情境才是不能被想象的。针对这种对可想象性与可能性关系的理解,本文也讨论了一些可能的反驳并指出这些反驳的不成功之处。

Imaginability and Possibility

Recently there is a heated discussion on the puzzle of imaginative resistance, i.e. the puzzle of why it is difficult to imagine certain counterfactual scenarios. After examining Brian Weatherson’s “In-Virtue-Of Hypothesis”, I put forward an alternative hypothesis that all and only conceptual impossibilities are unimaginable. I argue that my account has some theoretical advantages over the In-Virtue-Of hypothesis. I consider some challenges to my hypothesis and then attempt to show that those objections are unsuccessful.