Top Highlights

• Not only can counterfactuals provide new explanations; they are the foundation of a new mode of explanation. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, not only were many new scientific explanations discovered, but new modes of explanation and understanding were being invented, too—such as evolution by natural selection, force fields, curved ...
• To further grasp the importance of counterfactual properties, and their difference from actual properties, imagine a computer programmed to produce on its display a string of zeroes. That is a factual property of the computer, to do with its actual state—with what is. The fact that it could be reprogrammed to output other strings is a counterfactua...
• resilience can be achieved. There is no guarantee that it shall be achieved, since the laws are not designed for that; but it can be achieved because the laws of physics do not forbid that.
• knowledge is the key to resilience. The knowledge in his speech survives to this day. In fact, knowledge is the most resilient stuff that can exist in our universe.
• knowledge creation always starts with a problem, which we can think of as a clash between different ideas someone has about reality. Incidentally, this suggests a rather positive, uplifting interpretation of conflicting states of mind where contrary impulses clash and fight.