Bas C. van Fraassen - What are Possible Worlds?

'Possible worlds' are all the ways in which a world can be. A 'world' is a complete state of cosmic affairs: all the infinite variations of innumerable parts and their myriad relationships. Possible worlds have become an indispensable philosophical technique for exploring modalities—issues of possibility and necessity that are essential for examining God.



Bas C. van Fraassen is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University and the McCosh Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Princeton University.


Closer to Truth presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[archaeologistify]

This has slowly but surely become my favorite channel. You are a great interviewer with a lot of insight into the topics and capable of understanding and therefore asking in-depth on topic questions.

[skshred]

Awesome guy this Bas van Fraassen (and Dutch like me too!). I've tried to read his 'Scientific Representation' and it's crazy difficult without a philosophy (of science) background, but damn interesting nonetheless. I really don't know whether to be an empiricist or a scientific realist, there's always so much to learn.

[bobcabot]

we cant wrap our heads around the human tragedy: but we still live in the best of all possible worlds...

[Bill..N]

Great interview, , and alot to agree with.. One issue though, It's so common to hear the disparaging meme that MW says that countless worlds are continuously being created or splitting off, etc..Perhaps a better alternative picture would be a PREEXISTING highway system with countless exits to other such highways..In some respects we are the "Travelers" of that existant road system.. A humble opinion..

[evanjameson]

Robert--you are a skilled interviewer!

[MrSanford]

I don’t see how the structure of any “world “can exist beyond subjective human sensations. Therefore writing a blueprint for a building then building it, or remembering the past and reliving the emotions , all should qualify for possible worlds

[jamesruscheinski]

Could awareness and understanding of universe and mind be a basis for the reality of consciousness?

[jamesruscheinski]

Is mathematics necessary in a possible world, and can describe physical reality? While a particular set of physical laws might not be necessary in a possible world, is some set of physical laws necessary in a possible world?

[jamesruscheinski]

Can a possible world observe mathematics describe a particular set of physical laws? And would the description of a set of physical laws by mathematics be enough for physical reality, if the set of physical laws are complete for a physical reality?

[holgerjrgensen]

Life is Eternal,
a Basic Princip, is 'the Life-Unit-Principle', which means Living Beings 'inside' Living Beings 'inside' Living Beings, inside Living Beings, endless.
All Life-Units expose a 'univers', our physical body and so on, all these universes are Worlds for Living Beings.
All the Life-Units follow their own Developing-lanes, Developing-Circuits and Developing-Levels in the Developing-Spiral.
So this is some basic nature of the World-All, and the Female Princip, and the Masculine Princip is the most basic in the Organism-Structure pf the Living Beings.
This means, that there are Female universes and Masculine universes, in all kind of universes.

[jamesruscheinski]

What could measure a possible world into physical reality? Are possible worlds themselves necessary for a physical reality?

[francesco]

it's quite ridiculous to think that each time a human being move a finger or make a step another universe is born ...so there are other 84834575727527527 me each hour since someone in the world (and why not in the universe) make a different move. And what about insects the ? For every fly, ever second 59538438 alternative realities are born ? too silly, for once i agree with Fraassen .

[philipvincenthilado]

Be aware of Coexistence, for the unconscious rulings carries us through other worlds, that subconsciously we can detect, be aware that our dreams represent other worlds, and we are identically or synchronous within the infinitum continuum, from these Point of views, the greatest symbolic example is holding a big mirror facing another mirror, or situated mirrors of barber shops, wherein you can see your back, on the infinite measure, there are crosses on the Universal paths, and there are sizes of inhabitants of different worlds, and but proportionally within the size of their Earths, Milky way to another, we are all represented with one general body, and those who survives, makes the wholeness of all body, within, doppelgangers are truly from these linkage...

[HD.]

It is not possible to know God as long as there is somuch questions in your mind !! because questioner is always a separate entity .

[jamesruscheinski]

Possible worlds observe abstraction, like mathematics and language, to help better describe reality?

[Goldilockkk]

everything you can imagine is real - Someone

[TheRealAirhead]

Whoever disliked this within 30 seconds of it posting are a spirt of negative energy

[tac]

In order for it to be possible for you to be sitting where you are right now you must also be sitting everywhere else.

[jamesruscheinski]

There might be infinitely many worlds from planck time to second of human time, that person experience without realizing it.

[dongshengdi]

Some compelling evidences suggesting intelligent design:
Our universe is made up of these elements :
1. Reality is made up of Information,
Mathematics everywhere
Symbols everywhere . Meaning is subjective, it requires a choice by a conscious being .
2. Causality Loops, Time is an illusion . (All of time) Every moment in time exists all the time . The universe is like a single DVD movie, the beginning, the middle, and the end of the story are all inside the disk .
3. Non-deterministic universe, We have free will because of our consciousness to decide as proven by the modified double-slit experiment (delayed-choice quantum eraser).
4. Cosmic Consciousness, placebo effect, Mind over matter, double-slit experiment . A conscious entity capable of generating information by observing. Matter doesn't exist until we observe it . (Frank Wilczek)
5. Quantized universe, Pixelation (Werner Heisenberg - Matrix Theory) planck length and planck time .
6. E8 Crystal Lattice shape of the fundamental particles in 8 Dimensions, when projected as 4D becomes 2 shapes in different sizes with a Ratio of 0.618,
7. Golden Ratio and Fibonacci Sequence existing everywhere in the universe from quantum Scale to Celestial Scale .

Conclusion:
1. Universal Collective Consciousness or Cosmic Consciousness coined by Dr. Michio Kaku . Our body is a collection of microbes (microbiome) with a single collective consciousness. Electrons and Quarks self-organize into 81 stable atoms to become self-aware into human consciousness . There is no upper limit on the number of atoms and energy to self-organize and become self-aware, therefore the earth could also be conscious (Gaia Hypothesis)
2. Our universe is a code-based Simulation in a super computer in another universe .