Misc. Philosophy Questions

Alejandro Barreto asked me a few of his philosophical questions. I am reproducing the relevant part of conversation below.

> 1. What is the basis of entire reality? And what does Godel’s Incompleteness
> Theorem got to do with this?

As far as I understand, Godel’s Incompleteness Theorem, in general, tells that there is some truth which cannot be proved or disproved…
Alejandro Barreto asked me a few of his philosophical questions. I am reproducing the relevant part of conversation below.

> 1. What is the basis of entire reality? And what does Godel’s Incompleteness
> Theorem got to do with this?

As far as I understand, Godel’s Incompleteness Theorem, in general, tells that there is some truth which cannot be proved or disproved. It isnt that one has any less intelligence to prove or disprove the truth, but it is the general property of the system.

If we apply this theorem to reality, I guess there are certain things which we might never understand. It is IMPOSSIBLE to know every truth.

But, maybe this is my naive interpertation of Godel’s theorem.

> 3. What are your views on the subject-object duality? Do you believe in
> solipsism (that the world exists only for me and everything is my
> imagination) or pure objective science (“I” am only a bunch of hyperactive
> biological units called cells)? Can we even know the foundation of reality?

The more I think about the ultimate reality, the lesser I understand it. I believe out brain was never evolved to understand things such as subject-object duality. It was evolved to make strategies for hunting animals for food. It was evolved to comprehend things in their macro sense. So it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to understand things in thier ultimate reality.

There is no way you can disprove or prove either of these: solipsism or pure objective science. How would you prove a person adhering to solipsism that pure objective science is true. Perhaps, to prove that
world exists without him, you will have to kill him. And by killing him, you can no longer prove (or show) him anything. Similarly, you can never prove a person adhering to pure objective science that solipsism is true.

I believe we can never know the ultimate truth or reality or whatever you might want to call it. We were not evolved for this. The ultimate reality will always remain elusive for, us, philosophers.