The philosopher David Hume maintained that man's mind can discover no absolutely certain knowledge except that which it receives from a continuous stream of sensory perception. According to him, neither cause and effect nor the inductive method of reasoning can produce certain knowledge because of mistaken reasoning and future changes. Hume even objected that the force of gravity could not be certain knowledge because it might change in the future.
Of course, Hume was right to maintain that people make mistakes and systems change. This fact is obvious. Nevertheless, he was wrong to assert that no certain knowledge can be derived from cause and effect and inductive systems. Hume's only real objection to certain knowledge rested on the finite mind of man, his propensity for faulty reasoning, and his inability to predict the future. However, man's faulty and finite mind does not preclude the fact that certain knowledge can be derived from cause and effect and inductive reasoning systems.
Take gravity for example. Sir Isaac Newton discovered the mathematical language that describes how gravity works. This mathematical system is exact, and if gravity were to change, then the mathematical system that describes it must also change. On the other hand, as long as the mathematical system that describes how gravity works remains exactly the same, then the force of gravity will work exactly the same way and vice versa. These two systems exactly match each other forever. This fact constitutes exact and eternal knowledge.
Going further, as Heraclitus pointed out, some systems change continuously, such as the weather. Yet, if anyone were smart enough to calculate the exact mathematical language that would describe the exact weather system that exists in every moment of earthly time, that person could easily predict every weather system for every moment as long as the earth lasts. Every weather system at every moment matches an exact mathematical language that describes the weather at that moment. These facts also constitute exact and eternal knowledge. Man's weak mind simply does not possess the requisite power to be able to discover all eternal and exact knowledge.
However, man's mind can know that exact and eternal knowledge exists even if he cannot know what it is. The basic principle of this knowledge is that every exact and unchanging system produces an exact and unchanging effect. Within themselves, systems and their effects never change, but from moment to moment any given system can change to another system. This means that man's mind can know that all processes of change involves a change from one exact system to another from moment to moment throughout the history of the earth.
Some systems, like gravity, change very slowly, if at all. Others, like the weather, change very quickly. Nevertheless, whether systems change to other systems slowly or quickly, every exact system and the mathematics that describes them never fails to produce exact and unchanging effects in every moment of time. Thus, any cause and effect system can absolutely be known for any moment and inductive reasoning simply reflects this fact.
For the above reasons, mathematics itself can be known to comprise an infinity of systems, each one of which produces an eternal and exact effect. 2+2=4 is an exact and eternal system producing an exact effect forever.
Man's finite mind can but know a small part of these exact and eternal systems. The entire history of mankind has been a process of discovering and inventing true and exact systems and discarding the false ones. Over the course of this history, man's knowledge has greatly increased, but man's limited knowledge still falls far short of the infinite knowledge that exists.
These conclusions raise other questions. Does anyone already know the infinity of true and exact systems that compose eternal knowledge? Does not the fact that eternal knowledge exists presuppose an Eternal Knower? When Isaac Newton discovered the mathematical systems that describe how gravity works, did they not exist before he found them? Since man is even now in the constant process of discovering new true and exact systems, does this not prove that many unknown true and eternal systems already exist which man is capable of discovering? God must exist and He knows the infinity of true and eternal systems.
No comments:
Post a Comment