What does it mean for something to be impossible? In the world of science, some might say that things like time travel or invincibility fall into this category. But in philosophy, bending the laws of physics is fair game. However, there are still some things that are considered philosophically impossible. An emerging class of philosophers takes these ideas to the next level by reasoning about impossible worlds: alternate universes that contain impossible situations and objects. What do these worlds look like, and are they real? On this episode, we explore the impossible and why impossible worlds may be a key part of the ultimate nature of who and what we are.


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Music (in order of appearance):

1. Benjamin Banger - "Bobby Drake" (Creative Commons 4.0)
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Instagram: @benjaminbanger
2. Nctrnm - "Rider" (Creative Commons 4.0)
3. Daniel Birch - "Deep in Peace" (Creative Commons 4.0 NonCommercial)
4. Nctrnm - "Secretary" (Creative Commons 4.0)
5. Glass Boy - "My Pretty Looking Clothes" (Creative Commons 3.0)
6. Chris Zabriskie - "Another Version of You" (Creative Commons 4.0)
Soundcloud: @chriszabriskie
7. Pipe Choir - "Exit Exit" (Creative Commons 4.0)
Soundcloud: @pipe-choir-2
8. Nctrnm - "Anthony" (Creative Commons 4.0)
9. Chris Zabriskie - "Land on The Golden Gate" (Creative Commons 4.0)
10. Music For Your Plants - "Tour Peru" (Creative Commons 2.5 NonCommercial)
11. Daniel Birch - "Set Adrift" (Creative Commons 4.0 NonCommercial)

Works Cited:

1. Ballarin, R. (2011). The perils of primitivism: Takashi Yagisawa’s worlds and individuals, possible and otherwise. Analytic Philosophy. 52(4). 272-282.

2. Benovsky, J. (2006). Four-dimensionalism and model perdurants. In Valore, P. (ed.) Topics on general and formal ontology. Monza, Italy: Polimetrica. 

3. Berto, F. (2018). Conceivability and possibility: problems for Humeans. Synthese. 195(6). 2697-2715.

4. Berto, F. and Plebani, M. (2015). Ontology and metaontology: a contemporary guide. London: Bloomsbury Academic. 

5. Berto, F. and Jago, M. (2019). Impossible worlds. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

6. Cordova, V. (2007). How it is: the Native American philosophy of V.F. Cordova. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press.

7. Ellis, G. (2006). The multiverse proposal and the anthropic principle. Presented at the Claremont Cosmology Conference, 2006. 

8. Gendler, T. and Hawthorne, J. (2002). Introduction: conceivability and possibility. In Gendler, T. and Hawthorne, J. (eds.) Conceivability and possibility. New York: Oxford University Press. 1-70.

9. Graham, A. (2015). From four- to five-dimensionalism. Ratio. 28(1). 14-28.

10. Greene, B. (2011). The hidden reality: parallel universes and the deep laws of the cosmos. 

11. Kaku, M. (2008). Physics of the impossible: a scientific exploration into the world of phasers, force fields, teleportation and time travel. New York: Doubleday Publishing.

12. Lewis, D. (1986). On the plurality of worlds. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

13. Priest, G. (2016). Thinking the impossible. Philosophical Studies. 173(10). 2649-2662.

14. Tegmark, M. (2014). Our mathematical universe: my quest for the ultimate nature of reality. New York: Knopf.

15. Yagisawa, T. (2010). Worlds and individuals, possible and otherwise. New York: Oxford University Press.

16. Yagisawa, T. (2017). S4 to 5D. Argumenta. 2(2). 241-261.