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Zurück zum Heft: Archiv für Begriffsgeschichte. Band 43
DOI: 10.28937/9783787336807_1

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The article explores the history of the concept of impossibility from early Greek thought to the present day. Unlike the history of the concept of possibility, impossibility as such has never been looked at by itself. The article focuses therefore on actual occurences throughout the ages. lt is shown, how under theological premises (God's omnipotence and the understanding of miracles, as weil as logical speculation) the concept of impossibility receives a special interest from early Christianity through the middle ages. In the modern age, impossibility is also explorcd as cpistemic category. Existentialism gives the concept a new dynamic. Throughout the ages, the idea of impossibility has been involved in foundational speculations of philosophy.