• Nuncaltussum
    1
    If science really is the asymptote of truth—an asymptote being a curve that gets infinitly closer to a line but never ever touches it ; the idea is often atributed to Victor Hugo—what would the equivalent analogy be for philosophy related to truth ?
  • _db
    3.6k
    It's what we do when we make certain claims like science being the asymptote of truth. Philosophy basically deals with framing questions, not certain facts about the world. We're trying to figure out how it all fits together - because we appreciate the distinction between appearance and reality and wish to see the relationship between the two. We want to know what it is that we are asymptotically approaching (truth), why science is the curve that does so (is it always?), and whether or not its asymptote is anything even meaningful at all, or simply the end of scientific inquiry.

    Part of what makes philosophy so interesting is how self-reflexive and indeterminate it is. You can't pin it down but philosophers nevertheless keep trying to. It's certainly the case that philosophy deals with legitimate things but it's also a philosophical question to figure out what these things are.
  • Cavacava
    2.4k


    99.999....% probability
  • T Clark
    13k
    If science really is the asymptote of truth—an asymptote being a curve that gets infinitly closer to a line but never ever touches it ; the idea is often atributed to Victor Hugo—what would the equivalent analogy be for philosophy related to truth ?Nuncaltussum

    Well, first off, it's not true. Science does not get closer and closer to some objective reality.

    But back to your metaphor. If science is the asymptote of truth, metaphysics, i.e. philosophy, is the coordinate system, the x and y axes, the graph paper, the straight edge, the pencil, or more accurately these days - my Lenovo computer, Microsoft Windows, and Excel.
  • szardosszemagad
    150
    If science really is the asymptote of truth—an asymptote being a curve that gets infinitly closer to a line but never ever touches it ; the idea is often atributed to Victor Hugo—what would the equivalent analogy be for philosophy related to truth ?Nuncaltussum
    The passionfruit of truth.
  • Streetlight
    9.1k
    Oh this is my favorite answer.
  • Harry Hindu
    4.9k
    If science really is the asymptote of truth—an asymptote being a curve that gets infinitly closer to a line but never ever touches it ; the idea is often atributed to Victor Hugo—what would the equivalent analogy be for philosophy related to truth ?Nuncaltussum
    It would also be the asymptote of truth. To say otherwise would be saying that philosophy doesn't attempt to create explanations that are consistent with the way the world is. Philosophy is a science. You cannot have conflicting answers in different domains of investigation. Everything must be integrated. In doing so, you make philosophy a science.
  • unenlightened
    8.7k
    The Geometry of Philosophy.

    Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
    Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel
    Like a snowball down a mountain, or a carnival balloon
    Like a carousel that's turning running rings around the moon
    Like a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of its face
    And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space
    Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind!

    Like a tunnel that you follow to a tunnel of its own
    Down a hollow to a cavern where the sun has never shone
    Like a door that keeps revolving in a half forgotten dream
    Or the ripples from a pebble someone tosses in a stream
    Like a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of its face
    And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space
    Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind!

    Keys that jingle in your pocket, words that jangle in your head
    Why did summer go so quickly, was it something that you said?
    Lovers walk along a shore and leave their footprints in the sand
    Is the sound of distant drumming just the fingers of your hand?
    Pictures hanging in a hallway and the fragment of a song
    Half remembered names and faces, but to whom do they belong?
    When you knew that it was over you were suddenly aware
    That the autumn leaves were turning to the color of her hair!
    Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
    Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel
    As the images unwind, like the circles that you find
    In the windmills of your mind!
    Writer/s: BERTHOLD BRECHT, KURT WEILL
  • T Clark
    13k
    The Geometry of Philosophy.unenlightened

    Love it. Thank you.
  • Daz
    34
    Well, first off, it's not true. Science does not get closer and closer to some objective reality.T Clark

    On the contrary, I believe that that is exactly what science does. A claim in science is accepted only when the claim is verifiable, over and over, by others. Often this is a measurement of something. Measurements of things like the speed of light, the weight of atoms, the size of the electron have only gotten more and more precise as time goes on. Our knowledge of animal behavior and the classification of plants and animals only improves with time. Etc.That is the very definition of getting closer and closer to some objective reality.

    There still is an indescribably huge collection of questions we don't know the answers to and, undoubtedly, don't even know enough to formulate the questions correctly. We very well may never know all the answers. But that doesn't change the fact that science is getting closer to knowing some objective reality.
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