Conhecimento possibilista

Abstract

What I call "possibilist knowledge", is the third form of scientific knowledge parallel vto the sufficient and the probabilistic. I name it that way because of its basic characteristic: it is knowledge about what makes something possible, not probable or necessary. Its form of law is the “Possibilist Law”, a type of scientific law that provides that, in the absence of a necessary condition N, event E is not possible. Its form of scientific explanation is the "Possibilist Explanation", which explains an event showing how, in fact, it was epistemically possible, rather than why it would be epistemically necessary. Its explanandum is the epistemic possibility of a real event previously considered epistemically impossible. To define PE, the new concept of the permissive condition is also introduced. Possibilist laws and explanations are legitimate and neglected parts of scientific knowledge and are especially suitable for the humanities. They are part of the answer to the longed-for scientificity of the humanities and the compatibility between modern science and the idea of free will.