Nothing Can Be Known of the World Itself

Said Yeshayahu Leibowitz, because we are inside it. We can know, at most, about many things within the world. (Got that?)

Others agree.

Here is what I found yesterday:

Pieper notes that there cannot be a closed system of philosophy and that any philosophy that claims to have discovered a “cosmic formula” is a pseudo-philosophy. [Pieper, Josef (2006), For the Love of Wisdom: Essays on the Nature of Philosophy, Ignatius Press].

In this he follows Kant, who rejected the postulation of a “highest principle” from which to develop Transcendental idealism, calling this pseudo-philosophy and mysticism. [Baur, Michael; Dahlstrom, Daniel O. (1999), The Emergence of German Idealism, CUA Press].

The notion of man attaining “justified, true belief” of the universe, a General Theory of Everything, is therefore absurd.

Mishna Chagigah 2:1 applies:

אין דורשין בעריות בשלשה ולא במעשה בראשית בשנים ולא במרכבה ביחיד, אלא אם כן היה חכם ומבין מדעתו. כל המסתכל בארבעה דברים, ראוי לו כאלו לא בא לעולם, מה למעלה, מה למטה, מה לפנים, ומה לאחור. וכל שלא חס על כבוד קונו, ראוי לו שלא בא לעולם.

By the way, we referenced the above article in our free, special ebook on answering atheists. To receive the full Hebrew ebook, subscribe to Hyehudi’s Daily Newsletter here.