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[[Compossibility]] is a [[philosophical]] [[concept]] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leibniz Leibniz]. According to Leibniz a complete [[individual]] [[thing]] (for example a [[person]]) is characterized by all its [[properties]], and these determine its [[relations]] with other [[individuals]]. The [[existence]] of one individual may [[contradict]] the [[existence]] of another. A possible world is made up of [[individuals]] that are ''compossible'' — that is, individuals that can exist [[together]]. Possible worlds exist as possibilities in the [[mind]] of [[God]]. One world among them is realized as the [[actual]] world, and this is the most [[perfect]] one.

According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' article on [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/leibniz-modal/ Leibniz's Modal Metaphysics] by Brandon C. Look, views on "compossibility" and the closely related best of all possible worlds [[argument]] are to be found in ''On the Ultimate Origination of Things'', ''The Discourse in Metaphysics'', ''On Freedom'', and throughout his works. The term itself is found in ''Die philosophischen Schriften III'' when Leibniz writes to Bourguet.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Badiou Alain Badiou] borrows this [[concept]] in defining [[philosophy]] as the [[creation]] of a "space of compossibility" for [[heterogeneous]] [[truths]].

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_Deleuze Gilles Deleuze] uses it in ''Cinema II'' taking [[support]] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leibniz Leibniz]'s [[explanation]] of the [[problem]] of [[future]] [[contingents]]. He then creates the notion of in-compossible, and drawing on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge_Luis_Borges Jorge Luis Borges] [[explains]] that several mutually [[contradictory]] worlds do in [[fact]] exist.

[[Category: Philosophy]]

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