When we have all the answers, what shall we do next?
My wife claims I already have all the answers, so since there are no more genuine philosophical problems for me
to solve, she very graciously gives me endless, Sisyphean lists of things to do around the house so I don’t become
overwhelmed with ennui.
When we have all the answers, what shall we do next?
My wife claims I already have all the answers, so since there are no more genuine philosophical problems for me
to solve, she very graciously gives me endless, Sisyphean lists of things to do around the house so I don’t become
overwhelmed with ennui.
Actually, even if we had all the answers, how would we know that there is nothing more lurking behind the corner?
BTW, if someone is omniscient, can he prove to himself the fact that he is? I mean, he just knows that he knows a lot. But how can he know that he knows everything? You have to know that you are omniscient in order to know that you know everything, and not just a lot. I got confused. Any logicians here?
Actually, even if we had all the answers, how would we know that there is nothing more lurking behind the corner?
BTW, if someone is omniscient, can he prove to himself the fact that he is? I mean, he just knows that he knows a lot. But how can he know that he knows everything? You have to know that you are omniscient in order to know that you know everything, and not just a lot. I got confused. Any logicians here?
You would have to have a set “the set of all possible knowable things.” Ah, but that set itself would then be a knowable thing, so it would itself be subsumed in a greater “set of all possible knowable things.” This in turn becomes a greater set. This is the sort of thing that drove people like Goedel and Cantor quite mad. Here’s how it looks visually:
A
(A)
((A))
(((A)))
So you can see how one can have an eternally expanding set of “all knowable things.” It ain’t pretty.
I’m a little confused with the premise here. Surely there are an infinite number of possible questions one could ask. If so, it is just as meaningless to claim we could have all the answers as it would be to claim we could count through all the numbers.
That and the fact that we forget things - or at least are unable to recall things a lot of the time. I guess when we have all the answers we plug our brains into our keyboards and type defrag.
I can’t find the quote right now, but I thought Twain or HL Mencken said something like “Sometimes I feel I have forgotten morethan I ever knew.” Guess I’ve forgotten who said it, if they said it, so that makes it all the more poignant!
The question is unusual. I thought for a moment, but my first thought didn’t work since they posted this in the philosophy thread. That answer is was “test them again and see if we still get the same answers.” That is a scientific answer though. Some riddle they have set up here.
Well, maybe it’s an existential question. Since searching for “the answers” is part of our raison d’etre (at least for many of us), would we feel purposeless if there were no questions left to ask? Milton said, “Man’s reach must ever exceed his grasp, else what’s a Heavan for?” I still think it’s impossible, so nothing to worry about, but I guess the question might make sense in that way.
