Skip to content
quotesby

There is no logical impossibility in the hypothesis that the world sprang into being five minutes ago, exactly as it then was, with a population that 'remembered' a wholly unreal past. There is no logically necessary connection between events at different times; therefore nothing that is happening now or will happen in the future can disprove the hypothesis that the world began five minutes ago.

Bertrand Russell#15

PhilosophyLogicEpistemologyCosmologyPossibility

WhatsApp (opens in a new tab)X (opens in a new tab)

About this quote

What does it mean?
Russell points out that the hypothesis that the world began five minutes ago is logically possible because we cannot prove a necessary connection between past and present.
In plain terms
He says we can’t rule out that the world was created five minutes ago.
What can you take from it?
Logical possibility doesn’t equal truth.

Where it applies

  • discussing cosmology
  • examining epistemic limits

Putting it to work

  • teaching critical thinking
  • exploring metaphysical scenarios

Questions to consider

  • How do we distinguish plausible from merely possible claims?
  • What evidence would change this view?

Another view

While logically possible, it offers no practical insight into reality.

More from Bertrand Russell

  1. One who believes as I do, that free intellect is the chief engine of human progress, cannot but be fundamentally opposed to Bolshevism as much as to the Church…

    Permalink to quote #14

  2. The white population of the world will soon cease to increase. The Asiatic races will be longer, and the negroes still longer, before their birth rate falls su…

    Permalink to quote #16

  3. ...it [is] possible to suppose that, if Russia is allowed to have peace, an amazing industrial development may take place, making Russia a rival of the United …

    Permalink to quote #13

Related quotes

  1. I concluded that I might take as a general rule the principle that all things which we very clearly and obviously conceive are true: only observing, however, t…

    Rene DescartesRene Descartes quote #23

  2. If I cannot say a priori what elementary propositions there are, then the attempt to do so must lead to obvious nonsense. (5.5571)

    Ludwig WittgensteinLudwig Wittgenstein quote #23

  3. Il n'est pas certain que tout soit incertain. (387)

    Blaise PascalBlaise Pascal quote #29