possibility studies

Becoming aware of what is possible and comparatively assessing various possibilities goes beyond cognitive – or, for that matter, neurological – processes. The possible is not merely a mental representation or way of processing information; it involves the entire being and it especially has a strong motivational and emotional dynamic.

the possible and the actual are intertwined if we consider them temporally – they continuously feed into and transform each other through the course of action.

Horizons have shrunk. Novelists and filmmakers seem far more at home with dystopias than with the possibility that the world might get better. The institutions that once fuelled our shared imagination have, for different reasons, given up, leaving public intellectual culture recycling old ideas, while much of politics has drifted into nostalgia.

Without curiosity, possibility cannot appear on the scene, and without possibility, curiosity has no scene to work with in the first place. The two make one another possible.

There is strong evidence that hope is good for us, and if imagination helps us to hope, then we should worry if it is blocked.

The possibilities of what we might now think, and know, and become are not necessarily novel in the sense of never having been witnessed before. Many artists work in and with historical tropes and beckon, through them, beyond the present horizon. It is that bidirectionality that allows them to crack open the network of thought.

Experiences of the possible foster mental health . While mental health and well-being have a wide range of determinants, the capacity to envision a multitude of possible solutions to life’s problems, and the confidence that some of these can be achieved, is a precondition for both.