Metaphysical Possibility

Famous quotes containing the words metaphysical and/or possibility:

    The very hope of experimental philosophy, its expectation of constructing the sciences into a true philosophy of nature, is based on induction, or, if you please, the a priori presumption, that physical causation is universal; that the constitution of nature is written in its actual manifestations, and needs only to be deciphered by experimental and inductive research; that it is not a latent invisible writing, to be brought out by the magic of mental anticipation or metaphysical mediation.
    Chauncey Wright (1830–1875)

    I want to go back, out of the bad stories,
    But there’s always the possibility that the next one . . .
    No, it’s another almond tree, or a ring-swallowing frog . . .
    Yet they are beautiful as we people them
    With ourselves.
    John Ashbery (b. 1927)