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Ignorabimus
The Latin maxim , meaning "we do not know and will not know", represents the idea that scientific knowledge is limited. It was popularized by Emil du Bois-Reymond, a German physiologist, in his 1872 address ("The Limits of Science"). Seven "World Riddles" Emil du Bois-Reymond first used the words and at the close of his keynote address to the 1872 Congress of German Scientists and Physicians. As he saw it, science was bounded by two limits: the ultimate nature of matter and the enigma of consciousness. Eight years later, in a speech before the Prussian Academy of Sciences, he expanded his list of conundrums to seven "world riddles" or "shortcomings" of science. Three of these he declared to be " transcendent", or permanently unknowable: "1. the ultimate nature of matter and energy, 2. the origin of motion, ... 5. the origin of simple sensations." Hilbert's reaction David Hilbert, a widely-respected German mathematician, suggested that such a conceptualization of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unknowability
In philosophy, unknowability is the possibility of inherently unaccessible knowledge. It addresses the epistemology of that which cannot be known. Some related concepts include the limits of knowledge, ''ignorabimus'', unknown unknowns, the halting problem, and chaos theory. Nicholas Rescher provides the most recent focused scholarship for this area in ''Unknowability: An Inquiry into the Limits of Knowledge'', where he offered three high level categories, logical unknowability, conceptual unknowability, and in-principle unknowability. Background Speculation about what is knowable and unknowable has been part of the philosophical tradition since the inception of philosophy. In particular, Baruch Spinoza's Theory of Attributes argues that a human's finite mind cannot understand infinite substance; accordingly, infinite substance, as it is in itself, is in-principle unknowable to the finite mind. Immanuel Kant brought focus to unknowability theory in his use of the noumenon con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hilbert's 23 Problems
Hilbert's problems are 23 problems in mathematics published by German mathematician David Hilbert in 1900. They were all unsolved at the time, and several proved to be very influential for 20th-century mathematics. Hilbert presented ten of the problems (1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 13, 16, 19, 21, and 22) at the Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ... conference of the International Congress of Mathematicians, speaking on August 8 at the University of Paris, Sorbonne. The complete list of 23 problems was published later, in English translation in 1902 by Mary Frances Winston Newson in the ''Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society''. Earlier publications (in the original German) appeared in ''Archiv der Mathematik und Physik''. and Of the cleanly formulated Hilb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Hilbert
David Hilbert (; ; 23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943) was a German mathematician and philosopher of mathematics and one of the most influential mathematicians of his time. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental ideas including invariant theory, the calculus of variations, commutative algebra, algebraic number theory, the foundations of geometry, spectral theory of operators and its application to integral equations, mathematical physics, and the foundations of mathematics (particularly proof theory). He adopted and defended Georg Cantor's set theory and transfinite numbers. In 1900, he presented a collection of problems that set a course for mathematical research of the 20th century. Hilbert and his students contributed to establishing rigor and developed important tools used in modern mathematical physics. He was a cofounder of proof theory and mathematical logic. Life Early life and education Hilbert, the first of two children and only son of O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ignorance Management
Ignorance management is a knowledge management practice that addresses the concept of ignorance in organizations. Overview Logically, ignorance management is based upon the concept of ignorance. John Israilidis, Russell Lock, and Louise Cooke of Loughborough University described ignorance management as: The key principle of this theory is that knowledge management (KM) could better be seen as ignorance management, due to the fact that it is impossible for someone to comprehend and understand everything in a complete way. The only real wisdom is in recognising the limits and extent of one's knowledge, and therefore KM is essentially a matter of sharing the extent of one's ignorance with other people, and thus learning together. This process of knowing what is needed to know, and also acknowledging the power of understanding the unknown, could develop a tacit understanding and could improve both short-term opportunistic value capture and longer term business sustainability. Resea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems
Gödel's incompleteness theorems are two theorems of mathematical logic that are concerned with the limits of in formal axiomatic theories. These results, published by Kurt Gödel in 1931, are important both in mathematical logic and in the philosophy of mathematics. The theorems are widely, but not universally, interpreted as showing that Hilbert's program to find a complete and consistent set of axioms for all mathematics is impossible. The first incompleteness theorem states that no consistency, consistent system of axioms whose theorems can be listed by an effective procedure (i.e. an algorithm) is capable of Mathematical proof, proving all truths about the arithmetic of natural numbers. For any such consistent formal system, there will always be statements about natural numbers that are true, but that are unprovable within the system. The second incompleteness theorem, an extension of the first, shows that the system cannot demonstrate its own consistency. Employing a Ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to personal limitations rather than a worldview. Another definition is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient rational grounds to justify either the belief that God exists or the belief that God does not exist." The English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley said that he originally coined the word ''agnostic'' in 1869 "to denote people who, like imself confess themselves to be hopelessly ignorant concerning a variety of matters ncluding the matter of God's existence about which metaphysicians and theologians, both orthodox and heterodox, dogmatise with the utmost confidence." Earlier thinkers had written works that promoted agnostic points of view, such as Sanjaya Belatthiputta, a 5th-century BCE Indian philosophe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I Know That I Know Nothing
"I know that I know nothing" is a saying derived from Plato's account of the Greek philosopher Socrates: ''"For I was conscious that I knew practically nothing..."'' (Plato, Apology 22d, translated by Harold North Fowler, 1966). It is also sometimes called the Socratic paradox, although this name is often instead used to refer to other seemingly paradoxical claims made by Socrates in Plato's dialogues (most notably, Socratic intellectualism and the Socratic fallacy). This saying is also connected or conflated with the answer to a question Socrates (according to Xenophon) or Chaerephon (according to Plato) is said to have posed to the Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi, in which the oracle stated something to the effect of "Socrates is the wisest person in Athens." Socrates, believing the oracle but also completely convinced that he knew nothing, was said to have concluded that ''nobody'' knew anything, and that he was only wiser than others because he was the only person who recogniz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emil Du Bois-Reymond
Emil Heinrich du Bois-Reymond (7 November 1818 – 26 December 1896) was a German physiologist, the co-discoverer of nerve action potential, and the developer of experimental electrophysiology. His lectures on science and culture earned him great esteem during the latter half of the 19th century. Life Du Bois-Reymond was born in Berlin and spent his life there. His younger brother was the mathematician Paul du Bois-Reymond (1831–1889). His father was a poor immigrant from Neuchâtel, and his mother was a Berliner of prominent Huguenot origin. Educated first at the Französisches Gymnasium Berlin, French College in Berlin, du Bois-Reymond enrolled in the Humboldt University, University of Berlin in 1838. He seems to have been uncertain at first as to the topic of his studies, for he was a student of the renowned ecclesiastical historian Johann August Wilhelm Neander, August Neander, and dallied with Naturphilosophie, geology, and physics, but eventually began to study medicine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transcendence (philosophy)
In philosophy, transcendence is the basic ground concept from the word's literal meaning (from Latin), of climbing or going beyond, albeit with varying connotations in its different historical and cultural stages. It includes philosophies, systems, and approaches that describe the fundamental structures of being, not as an ontology (theory of being), but as the framework of emergence and validation of knowledge of being. These definitions are generally grounded in reason and empirical observation and seek to provide a framework for understanding the world that is not reliant on religious beliefs or supernatural forces. "Transcendental" is a word derived from the scholastic, designating the extra-categorical attributes of beings. Caygill, Howard. ''A Kant Dictionary''. (Blackwell Philosopher Dictionaries), Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2000, p. 398 Religious definition In religion, transcendence refers to the aspect of God's nature and power which is wholly independent of the mate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strong Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to personal limitations rather than a worldview. Another definition is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient rational grounds to justify either the belief that God exists or the belief that God does not exist." The English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley said that he originally coined the word ''agnostic'' in 1869 "to denote people who, like imself confess themselves to be hopelessly ignorant concerning a variety of matters ncluding the matter of God's existence about which metaphysicians and theologians, both orthodox and heterodox, dogmatise with the utmost confidence." Earlier thinkers had written works that promoted agnostic points of view, such as Sanjaya Belatthiputta, a 5th-century BCE Indian philosopher who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ignotum Per Ignotius
''Ignotum per ignotius'' (Latin for "the unknown by the more unknown") describes an explanation that is less familiar than the concept it would explain. An example would be: "The oven felt hot because of Fourier's law." It is unlikely that a person unfamiliar with the hotness of ovens would be enlightened by a reference to a fundamental law of physics. That said, since these explanations could enlighten people in theory, ''ignotum per ignotius'' is not strictly a fallacy, but a criticism of an argument on rhetorical grounds, stating that such an argument is not useful in a particular context. ''Ignotum per æque ignotum'' ''Ignotum per æque ignotum'', meaning "the unknown by the equally unknown", is a related form of fallacy in which one attempts to prove something unknown by deducing it from something else that is also not known to be true.Galileo, ''Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems'', Day 2. See also * List of Latin phrases This is a list of Wikipedia articl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George-Kreis
The George-Kreis (; George Circle) was an influential German literary group centred on the charismatic author Stefan George. Formed in the late 19th century, when George published a new literary magazine called ' ("Journal for the Arts"), the group featured many highly regarded writers and academics. In addition to sharing cultural interests, the circle reflected mystical and political themes within the sphere of the Conservative Revolutionary movement. The group disbanded when George died in December 1933. Formation George began publishing poems modelled on French Symbolism in the 1890s. In 1892, he created the ''Blätter für die Kunst'' magazine, mainly to publish his own works and those by his admirers. Among his followers were Karl Wolfskehl and, a little later, Alfred Schuler and Ludwig Klages, both members of the Munich Cosmic Circle, as well as the Polish author Waclaw Rolicz-Lieder and the Dutch poet Albert Verwey. George assembled talented young men in an order-li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
