[lit-ideas] Inconceivabilities
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- Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 01:17:31 EST
1863 E. V. NEALE Anal. Th. & Nat. 219
The three points where Mr. Spencer's theory falls foul of
inconceivabilities.
"Inconceivable Quantities of Coco-Nuts"
"One thing is inconceivable,that the Arabs should,
as an existing nation, accept of modern civilization."
1882 Macm. Mag. XLV. 405 The inconceivability of a popular revolution [in
Russia].
"Men..who because of the inconceivableness of something they find in one,
throw themselves violently into the contrary hypothesis." (Locke)
My solution: the subscript device:
"That's inconceivable" --- translated as "That's inconceivable-JLS",
maybe it is conceivable-JMG, etc.
Balfour'd Unthinkables
1530 tr. Erasmus' Serm. Ch. Jesus (1901) 7
Jesus, whiche by an vnspeakable, nay, with an vnthynkable reason, is borne
God of God.
1830 W. TAYLOR Hist. Surv. Germ. Poetry I. 453
Separate from her To live is quite Separate fris death.
1865 MILL Exam. Hamilton 134
An endeavour to think what cannot be thought..is the test by which we
ascertain its unthinkability.
1884 H. SPENCER in Contemp. Rev. July 33
From whatever point of view we consider it, Bentham's proposition proves to
be unthinkable.
1897 F. H. BALFOUR Unthinkables 11
This involves unthinkabilities just as unthinkable as either of the other
two.
1631 DONNE in Select. (1840) 147
The inconceivable love of Christ.
1646 H. LAWRENCE Comm. Angells 34
With an inconceivable dexterity.
1721 BELLAMY Th. Trinity Introd. 3
There can be but one God, and..his Perfections are inconceivable.
1748 Anson's Voy. III. ii. 310
"There were inconceivable quantities of coco-nuts."
1822 J. IMISON Sc. & Art I. 222
Light appears to move with a velocity that is truly inconceivable.
1853 J. H. NEWMAN Hist. Sk. (1876) II. I. iv. 229
One thing is inconceivable,that the Turks should, as an existing nation,
accept of modern civilization.
As a philosophical term.
The following distinctions in meaning, though disputed by some, are
generally recognized:
(a) Opposed to the fundamental laws of thought, self-contradictory,
involving a contradiction in terms.
(b) Repugnant to recognized axioms or established laws of nature.
(c) Involving the dissolution of ideas which have become inseparably linked
in the human mind.
(d) Involving a combination of facts, which renders a proposition incredible
to the ordinary mind.
(e) Incapable of being represented by a mental image.
1655 H. MORE Antid. Ath. I. iii. 10
What is inconceivable or contradictious, is nothing at all to us.
1754 SHERLOCK Disc. (1759) I. iii. 136 The Objection represents a Mystery as
a Thing inconceivable..irreconcileable to..Reason.
1785 REID Intell. Powers II. xiv. (1803) I. 305
Power without substance is inconceiveable.
1829 SIR W. HAMILTON Discuss., Philos. Unconditioned (1852) 12
The Unconditioned is incognisable and inconceivable.
1865 MILL Exam. Hamilton vi. (1872) 86 The first meaning of Inconceivable
is, that of which the mind cannot form to itself any representation..the first
and most proper meaning. Ibid. 90 This extends the term inconceivable to
every combination of facts which..appears incredible. It was in this sense
that
the Antipodes were inconceivable. Ibid. 93 He [Hamilton] gives to the term a
third sense. ‘We conceive a thing only as we think it within or under
something else’..The inconceivable in this third sense, is simply the
inexplicable.
1872 H. SPENCER Princ. Psychol. (ed. 2) II. VII. xi. §427 Let me here
define what I mean by inconceivable, as distinguished from incredible or
unbelievable. An inconceivable proposition is one of which the terms cannot by
any
effort be brought before consciousness in that relation which the proposition
asserts between them.
1875 JOWETT Plato (ed. 2) IV. 271 Even these inconceivable qualities of
space..may be made the subject of reasoning.
B. as n. A thing or quality that cannot be conceived.
1706 WATTS Horæ Lyr. I. 56
Nothing's found in thee But boundless inconceivables, And vast eternity!
1836-7 SIR W. HAMILTON Metaph. xxxviii. (1859) II. 373
They confound together these exclusive inconceivables into a single notion.
1865 MILL Exam. Hamilton 63 Inconceivables are incessantly becoming
Conceivables as our experience becomes enlarged.
1847-8 H. MILLER First Impr. xvii. (1857) 302
Exactly the same degree of inconceivability attaches to ‘the years of the
Eternal’.
1865 MILL Exam. Hamilton iv. (1872) 63 The inconceivability and consequent
unknowability of the Unconditioned.
1882 Macm. Mag. XLV. 405 The inconceivability of a popular revolution [in
Russia].
1843 MILL Logic III. v. §9 (1856) I. 389
The action of mind upon matter..has appeared to some thinkers to be itself
the grand inconceivability.
1863 E. V. NEALE Anal. Th. & Nat. 219
The three points where Mr. Spencer's theory falls foul of
inconceivabilities.
1865 MASSON Rec. Brit. Philos. 393
He has had to assume an inexplicability, an inconceivability, a paradox, as
nevertheless a fact.
1661 GLANVILL Van. Dogm. vi. 57
Wee need go no further for an evidence of its inconceivableness.
1690 LOCKE Hum. Und. IV. iii. §6
Men..who because of the inconceivableness of something they find in one,
throw themselves violently into the contrary hypothesis.
1740 ABERNETHY in Reid's Intell. Powers IV. iii. (1803) II. 63 The measure
of impossibility to us is inconceivableness, that of which we can have no
idea, but that reflecting upon it, it appears to be nothing.
1872 H. SPENCER Princ. Psychol. (ed. 2) II. §426 The inconceivableness of its
negation is that which shows a cognition to possess the highest rank.
1651 BAXTER Inf. Bapt. 55
The Church of Christ is not in a worse condition now..but inconceivably
better.
1711 STEELE Spect. No. 167 3 The ill Consequence of these Reveries is
inconceiveably great.
1748 JOHNSON Vision Theodore 6 Amazed to find it without foundation, and
placed inconceivably in emptiness and darkness.
1750 Rambler No. 41 13 Though its actual existence be inconceivably short.
1866 J. MARTINEAU Ess. I. 19 The book is inconceivably absurd.
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