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| Acmlm's Board - I3 Archive - World Affairs/Debate - The Need for Certainty and the Importance Therof |
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Tommathy                  Since: 11-17-05 From: Cloud Nine, Turn Left and I'm There~ Last post: 6295 days Last view: 6295 days |
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| Is it important to be absolutely certain of everything? Are all things knowable? Can reason eventually solve every problem? | |||
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Schweiz oder etwas [12:55] (Dr_Death16); I swear, the word drama needs to be stricken from the dictionary, for I've heard it so many times, it will permanently be imprinted on my brain    Since: 11-17-05 From: Kingston, Rhode Island Last post: 6295 days Last view: 6295 days |
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| No.
Firstoff, you're asking if you can contemplate EVERYTHING. Like, everything of EVERYTHINGEVERYTHINGNNGNGNGNGNGNGNNG. That means you're competing with the infinite scope of individual human thought multiplied times the factor of randomness that exists in a person's head times the infinite amount of knowledge that has yet to be uncovered times the infinite depths of reason itself. There is no upper cap to knowledge because knowledge expands at the same speed that the universe expands, which is to say the fastest speed that there is. So long as infinity is still infinity, there's no way you'll know it all. (edited by Bonsai Kitten on 02-25-06 03:18 AM) |
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Skydude Armos Knight  Since: 02-18-06 From: Stanford, CA Last post: 6569 days Last view: 6569 days |
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| Similar to what Grey said, to be absolutely certain you would have to have perfect information, particularly difficult as that information could change while you were ascertaining certainty.
Now to be reasonably absolutely certain would be a lot easier, as it doesn't go to quite that extreme, but would still require a ridiculous amount of testing and the like. Even then, it's a matter of faith. It could be faith in some higher power, or as many "science only!" people seem to forget, it could be faith in man's ability to properly perceive the world. So you really can't be absolutely certain of anything simply because to do so would require certainty that our methods of measuring things are completely correct, which is a study unto itself which is on the whole unsolvable without intervention by some perfect being telling us that is the case. |
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Rom Manic Since: 12-18-05 From: Detroit, WHAT?! Last post: 6295 days Last view: 6295 days |
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| I think my response would be "What would we achieve by knowing everything?"
So...If we DID know everything, what is the point of living? So many things happen every day all around the universe, you'd have to keep up with all of that, all the time. It could be very frustrating and cause lots of stress. My guess is that you'll probably eventually kill yourself. I don't really have much else to say on the subject...Perhaps narrow it down into smaller bits? |
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Tommathy Since: 11-17-05 From: Cloud Nine, Turn Left and I'm There~ Last post: 6295 days Last view: 6295 days |
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| Corollary: Is it worth spending time contemplating the generally unkonwable? | |||
Skreename Giant Red Paratroopa Since: 11-18-05 Last post: 6302 days Last view: 6295 days |
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| Yes, it is worthwhile pondering things like that. If nothing else, it's an amusing and harmless way to spend free time. If something else, it helps sometimes to think about things that you can't really know in order to try to get your mind to work in ways it couldn't before, which is reward enough in itself. | |||
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Skydude Armos Knight Since: 02-18-06 From: Stanford, CA Last post: 6569 days Last view: 6569 days |
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| Also, just because it is generally unknowable, at least in this case, implies that complete knowledge of the situation is impossible to achieve. That's not to say that pondering it won't get you anywhere. If that were the case, we wouldn't have any philosophers. They have, perhaps, unraveled some of the meaning of human existence beyond what we can see, through their pondering, though of course plenty is left. |
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