More Notes on Systems

The quest for knowledge is exactly like filling a polygon into a circle by adding more sides; the world is the circle, our system the polygon. Following this, to increase knowledge and understanding of the world is to add more sides, bringing you closer to having a perfect description of the world. However, a polygon is never a circle, no matter how close you get.

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To be in a situation to justify a system of explanation for the world requires one to be able to go outside that system. But, to be able to analyze and understand it we need some kind of system which we can use to piece together what we come to see about the first system. Then it seems we need another system…ultimately, to be in a position to justify all systems of knowledge, you would have to be outside all systems, in which case how could you possible organize that knowledge? Perhaps a better way to put it would be, "How does one justify understanding?" You would need understanding to make and consider the justification. Or am I just being to literal?

(Written 10/22)