Knowledge: Inherently Infinite or Inherently Terminable?

[Infinitatis]

There are different tiers of knowledge. Tiers explain their preceding tiers. Tiers create a deeper understanding of something, A, in a transitive-property-like fashion. (A=B, B=C, C=D, therefore A=D.)

Does our understanding ever reach a point where we need not ask "why" any further? Does there come a point in which a reason is truly axiomatic?

The first tier is the most superficial and basic understanding of a concept. E.g., an object maintains a constant velocity unless acted upon by a force because an object maintains a constant velocity unless acted upon by a force (A=A). As tautological justifications, such as this, are not typically very useful for understanding, a deeper understanding is sought.

The second tier would explain the first tier. E.g., an object maintains a constant velocity unless acted upon by a force because objects have inertia (A=B). This is still not a complete understanding, however, and so the third tier is introduced.

The third tier explains the second tier. E.g., objects have inertia because... well, we don't really know.

So we just aren't smart enough yet, right? Perhaps this is not the case. Perhaps, we can't really know. Perhaps there is no fourth tier to this string of understanding. There are many things that we can still add underlying tiers to, but can all of these questions be answered? Just because the question exists, must the answer? If the answer does not exist, the knowledge does not exist, which thus renders knowledge finite.

Or perhaps knowledge is finite because we can know certain things and transfer that same knowledge in infinitely many ways, without having to gain new knowledge. E.g., I know how to put on a jacket because I know how to put on a sweater.

Thoughts?

 

[Intolerable]

All our knowledge is abstract. Even our primary schools of thought are abstract in nature.

So human knowledge to me is human interpretation of what was. We can't know because we never exist in the what is.

We can however build abstract things to suit our own abstract realities just fine.

 

[AphroditeGoneAwry]

You seem to start a lot of thought provoking threads, but then drop the thought ball on them.

Just noticing. I realize INTPs like to start things, but usually they also like to carry them out and get to the heart of a matter.

When I see you have started yet another OP, I have no desire to post in it because I know your threads won't go very far, and you will just be starting a new one tomorrow. Which is your choice, of course. I am just bringing this to light.

I'd prefer to see you focus on fewer ideas at once and follow them through better. Then I would be more eager to jump in.

 

[Infinitatis]

You seem to start a lot of thought provoking threads, but then drop the thought ball on them.

Just noticing. I realize INTPs like to start things, but usually they also like to carry them out and get to the heart of a matter.

When I see you have started yet another OP, I have no desire to post in it because I know your threads won't go very far, and you will just be starting a new one tomorrow. Which is your choice, of course. I am just bringing this to light.

I'd prefer to see you focus on fewer ideas at once and follow them through better. Then I would be more eager to jump in.

I can see why it may appear that way. I've actually been quite busy over the past two weeks. Furthermore, sometimes I do not reply to threads for a while (such as my Selflessness or Homsexuality/Evolution threads) because I see a lot of overly tangential arguments being made. For instance, the popular topic in the latter of these two threads, I believe, is currently the religious and cultural implications of marriage, which is what I had hoped not to discuss in that thread, as that debate is a dead end. As for the selflessness thread, there are some who may disagree, but I have already explained my stance to its fullest. If they agree, they agree. If they disagree, they disagree. I've only been on the forum for about four weeks, so just because there haven't been posts made in some of my threads for a while doesn't mean that I have "dropped the ball on them," per se.

A lot of my threads are things that I have thought about for months (or maybe years), so upon joining the forum, there was initially a lot that I wanted to share, but as time has progressed, there are less things for me to post threads about. I like to have multiple threads going at a time, as many of them are actually closely related, if you have not already noticed.