Something I've been thinking about lately is how, if we believe that all things that happen have a logical explanation, will this cause us to see only those things that seem to have a logical explanation and ignore those that don't? Is it possible that by precisely believing that everything can be explained, we see only what can be explained, thus making our belief self-fulfilling? I wonder about the unexplainable. This reminds me of that joke about science that says something like "starting from the premise that only the quantifiable exists, science has come to the conclusion that the unquantifiable does not exist."
Of course, I do believe that everything has a logical explanation, I do believe in the principle of sufficient reason, but I am not talking about that, because that everything has an explanation does not mean that every explanation is necessarily knowable. There are things that are beyond our understanding and there are things that we can hardly explain, not to say that it is simply impossible for us to explain. This has nothing to do with whether or not the world is a rational place, but rather with the limitations we have as humans.
I think many people make this mistake of seeing only the explainable and ignoring the unexplainable. I particularly have in my head the example of some people with scientistic ideas, such as those who believe that the mind does not exist, because they cannot explain with modern science and materialism how the mind works. Or that they dispute the existence of qualia or subjectivity in general because its existence is apparently unexplainable in an objective world. Or people who say that the intelligible and immaterial does not exist, because we cannot explain their relationship with matter.
Just because we can't fully explain those things now doesn't mean they don't have an explanation. I think it is necessary for us to accept that there are things for which we have explanations, and things for which we don't, and the fact that we don't have explanations for some things does not mean that those things don't exist or are less real than others, it only means that we lack the knowledge to explain them. We have to make peace more often with uncertainty and just accept that sometimes we don't know how or can't explain some things. Be a little more humble and realize that we don't have an answer for everything, and understand that sometimes it is smarter to have the right question, and not the wrong answer. That is the reason why it is not always good to trust that person who always has an answer for everything, and why it is sometimes better to give more attention to that person who is always questioning everything. It is a very important task, I think, to recognize our own ignorance.
I don't think that this makes a person less rational, on the contrary, I believe that it is an act of high reason to realize our own limitations. The world in which we live is, to a great extent, an unexplainable place, and although little by little we are finding more and more answers, it is possible that some questions will still remain unanswered. It is necessary that we accept and leave space in our mind for the unexplainable, because the unexplainable also exists, and probably never cease to exist.
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I'm a big fan of the inexplicable and I find that the people who come closest to it - the inexplicable - are poets and musicians. Something resonates in their works that cannot be compared with usual words or explanatory models and it was and is probably always the artist who achieves that people become aware of their limitations in expression, precisely through the high virtuosity that poetry and music make us realise.
Having grown up in an environment where everything required an explanation from childhood and was delivered in bite-size, I myself sometimes tend to want to explain myself and to resort to long-winded thoughts that I often, when I am of a light mind, do not even consider.
But I am quite content to live with the uncertainty that an illness does not always have a concrete cause, that I do not know how long I will live and that I do not know the future.
P.S. Congratulations, you seem to have worked your way up to higher voting-outcomes. Is that usable for you, does it count as an income? I know, I am asking private questions :)
I agree. Perhaps that is the reason why many of the early Western thinkers used poetry as a means of expressing themselves. I can think of a few. But, in general, I think that art of all kinds is always capable of doing a good job in conveying the ineffable.
Yes, but I think it is a bit contradictory, as most people have this conception that we are very rational and we can explain everything we do, but at the same time, if you question a person intensely, asking him why he does something, and the why of that, and so on, you will probably get to a point where you cannot explain with reasons why you do what you do. Maybe I am wrong. But I think, to a large extent, a lot of what we do comes down to intuitions. Most of the time, the things we do need no explanation because they are obvious to us, and if we are doing well, if someone asks us: why are we doing it? Our answer would be: why not? Because it would be obvious to us that we should do that. So sometimes explanations and reasons are just justifications for things we shouldn't do, and the things we should do are unexplained simply because they are obvious and require no explanation.
It could be, in Venezuela that is something (not so much, but something), but I prefer not to use it because I have no immediate needs and I prefer to keep it here. There is no problem, most of the time I don't mind private questions, but I reserve the right not to answer them. :)
I think you are right about that.
I guess it's because when you're asked, you think you have to give answers. And since one has often not really penetrated that there is no real answer, one formulates some that one thinks sound coherent. It is probably a kind of surface dialogue. If, on the other hand, one were to pause when someone asks something and ponder it for a while, one would probably come to the conclusion that one cannot give a satisfactory answer, but that it is enough not to have an answer to everything.
Oh yes, you put that very aptly! :)
There is a beautiful phrase I once heard: If you don't want something, you find reasons against it, but if you want it, you find ways for it. Those ways are the ones you're talking about, it's more of an intuition that happens apart from explanations and that can be ruined if you're not careful.
For the cryptos: Same here. Thanks for the reply :)