The Fire in the Equations # 2

Can we be certain of anything? or do we just make theories and assumptions in order to try to explain things?

Observation.
it is one of the ways by which we learn.
The only way we percieve the world is through our senses.
But how can we ever reach an objective truth, when everyone might sense things differently and interpret them differently?

THE WORLD IS A FORMAL SYSTEM, we give our own interpretations to different things. Could it be that the world is just a system waiting for us to put our own variables?


The mind of a 17th century person:

• The universe is rational. 

If it is not rational, there would be no predictability. So it would be futile to study it (like reading a book with scrambled letters).
"It is difficult to see how all pattern could be merely our fabrication. But could it be that human beings have come to attribute more importance to the pattern found in nature than nature does herself?".
Is rationality pattern, symmetry and predictability? We can see patterns because of our beliefs (Thinking Fast and Slow)

• Accessible universe

If God understands it, so do we.

• Contingency

"One cannot learn about the universe by thought and logic alone. Knowledge comes by observing and testing it."