Thank you, Jm Reyes, for such a pragmatic question.
Although the answer may seem trivial at first glance, it leads us deep into the realm of philosophy and modality. The simplest answer to your question is no – at least, that’s what your parents, friends and travel agents would tell you. And the reason is simple: without money, there doesn’t seem to be a way to buy a ticket to Japan, at least not without committing legal, moral or technological quirks. This is economically impossible. But wait, philosophy is not economics. Indeed, if you’ve been paying attention, I have already accepted exceptions in my answer. For example, I wrote “at least not without committing…” and “economically impossible”, and this leaves room for an alternative answer to your question.
In philosophy, the study of what is possible (and necessary) is called modality. There are various types of modalities and, therefore, possibilities and necessities. This can be illustrated by different classical sentences:
- I could have been rich and travelled to Japan in first-class;
- It is impossible for a human being to fly;
- Superman can travel as fast as light;
- 2 + 2 = 4 is a necessary mathematical truth.
You’ll notice a few things already. First, examples in philosophy are often not that creative. Second, different types of modality seem to refer to different scales or degrees of importance (or absoluteness). There is a lot of controversy about this, but logical modality is usually conceived as the most absolute, ahead of metaphysical and nomic (or physical) modalities, and then others types (chemical, biological, psychological, economic, deontic or moral, etc). A classical way of conceiving modal possibilities and necessities is through the notion of possible worlds. It is said, for example, that something (e.g. the statement, 2+2 = 4) is necessarily true if and only if it is true in all possible worlds; and that within the set of logically possible worlds, one could find all the other possible worlds (metaphysical, physical, and so on).
We can illustrate the idea of different kinds of modalities through philosophical examples. Let’s take a special case of travel: time travel. In theory, we can travel in time in two directions: either to the past or to the future. Let’s consider the second option: time travel to the future. To do so, we must reach very high speeds, close to the speed of light. Biologically speaking, it is impossible for the human body to travel that fast; but technologically or physically speaking, it is perfectly possible (fighter pilots and astronauts travel in some way into the future, albeit for only fractions of a second). When it comes to travelling back in time, things are more complicated: it is physically impossible (except for Superman when he’s saving Lois Lane) because, according to the laws of physics, it is impossible to travel faster than the speed of light. That said, it might be logically possible, although this remains a rather controversial topic (see the grandfather paradox, as described in Back to Future).
In conclusion, even if it is economically impossible for you to go to Japan, logically, metaphysically, physically, chemically, biologically, etc. – it is still possible. So it is up to you to explain this to the customs officers and convince them!
What do you think? Is it ever impossible to travel to Japan? Let us know in the comments.
And, as always, if you have a question for the Armchair Philosophers, don’t hesitate to get in touch. You could send us a message or fill in this form.
I studied in Geneva and Paris (University of Geneva and École Normale Supérieure) and I specialized in the philosophy of emotions, especially in the relationship between affective states and memory. My master's thesis dealt with nostalgia and represented an attempt to establish a general philosophical theory of this rich and complex emotion. Other areas of interest include moral emotions, metaethics and metaphysics, with a penchant for fictionality. I do not have any specific philosophical arguments in mind; however, I find that the works of Russell, Popper and Kripke are a must-read.