But in all the three cases which I have just cited, the inconceivability seems to be apprehended directly; no train of argument was needed, as in the case of the square of the hypothenuse, to obtain the verdict of consciousness on the point.
It may be summed up in the phrase "the inconceivability of the opposite.
The inconceivability is a general one; it is due to the difficulty of imaging the complexity of matter.
But the inconceivability of a particular modification of the nose affecting the germ-cells in a specific and representative way is a different kind of inconceivability.
All this general or merely a priori reasoning with regard to inconceivability is, as I have attempted to show, as available on the one side as on the other, and so fails to yield any observable advantage to either.
Romanes urges is the inconceivability of the process by which the germ-plasm of a preceding male parent affects the constitution of the female and her subsequent offspring.
Much has been said about the fourth dimension of space and the inconceivability of it to us.
If so, the feeling on my part that they are different, and the inconceivability of their coinciding, must be due to some self-element which is mixed up with my apprehension of the cube.
For while Locke erroneously imagined that the test of inconceivability is of equivalent value wherever it is applied, save only where it conflicts with preconceived ideas on the subject of Theism (see Appendix A.
Herbert Spencer quoted on inconceivability of cosmic evolution as due to Mind.
For, fully accepting the fact on which the argument rests, and it seems to me, in view of what I have said, that the latter assigns an altogether disproportionate value to the test of inconceivability in this case.
And in the vast majority of cases this test of relative inconceivability is, for all practical purposes, as valid a test of truth as is the test of absolute conceivability.
But again, it is curious to observe that in the anti-materialistic argument of Spencer the test of inconceivability is used in a manner the precise opposite of that in which it is used in the anti-materialistic argument of Locke.
The Argument from the Inconceivability of Self-existence.
The only difference, then, between what I have called absolute inconceivability and what I have called relative inconceivability consists in this--that while the latter admits of degrees, the former does not.
It only remains to show that disputants on either side are apt to endow this test of relative inconceivability with far more than its real logical worth.
It will be instructive, however, to those who rely upon Locke's exposition of the argument from Inconceivability to see how effectually he has himself destroyed it.
For as the test of absolute inconceivability is equally destructive of both theories, if a man wishes to choose between them, his choice can only be determined by what I have designated relative inconceivability--i.
The conclusion is that inconceivability is not an infallible proof of the absence of a fact, and that we must follow our experience even if it conflicts with our reason.
In it I learned "that inconceivability is not a criterion of impossibility," as rationalism claims.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "inconceivability" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word. Other words: absurdity; hopelessness; paradox; rarity; unreliability
