Monday, July 05, 2010

Wittgenstein on Scientism: A Quote

"At the basis of the whole modern view of the world lies the illusion that the so-called laws of nature are the explanations of natural phenomena.

So people stop short at natural laws as something unassailable, as did the ancients at God and Fate.
And they are both right and wrong. But the ancients were clearer, in so far as they recognized one clear terminus, whereas the modern system makes it appear as though everything were explained."

(Ref: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 6.371-6.372)

4 comments:

P@J said...

Fester indeed.

OK, if you are starting off saying the Laws of Nature cannot explain anything, then you and I are at very different places intellectually. We are in different universes.

In my universe, the square of the length of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides in any right-angled triangle. In my universe, all circles have the same ratio between the radius and the circumference. In my universe, the forces that hold nuclei together are stronger than the forces that hold electrons in orbitals. In my universe, energy exists in quanta.

Interesting that you are using the tools of my universe (a computer and the internet) to rail against the existence of that very universe. If laws of nature did not provide foundations of the understanding of reality or the ability to predict events in reality, then your computer wouldn’t work very well, would it?

Unless of course you just wipe your mind clean and say God did it. What colour is the sky in your universe?

BallBounces said...

PJ - it would help if you took the time to try to understand an argument before trying to refute it.

Joe said...

Maybe understanding arguments is not in P@J's nature.

BallBounces said...

This might help: ""At the basis of the whole modern view of the world lies the illusion that the so-called laws of nature are the [complete and final, ultimate] explanations of [the existence and character of] natural phenomena."

Darwinists like to complain about the lousy Designer, and usually they have the knee or eye in mind -- I've never heard one complain that they've been given a crappy brain never designed for abstract thought, or, indeed for any thought at all.

I think I'll turn this into a post...

"... nothing intellectually compelling or challenging.. bald assertions coupled to superstition... woefully pathetic"