The Allure of the Unfalsifiable
Posted by HermieneJan 12
I have had an idea fermenting in my mind for a few years, and about a year ago I labeled it “the allure of the unfalsifiable” to myself. I can’t in any way claim to be the originator of the idea, because many others have expressed similar sentiments. The idea is this: an idea is alluring to us presicely because it’s unfalsifiable. If you don’t know how a camera or a television works it’s easier to assume that it’s run by magic than to understand about lenses, about shutters, about transistors and cathode ray tubes. Now, here comes the trick: if you don’t believe it’s run by magic then you can’t prove that it’s not, and this is why the magic theory of cameras is more alluring than the electricity theory of cameras. This works for any degree of knowledge about cameras (save for absolute knowledge, perhaps). Even if you know every detail of every pathway on every printed circut board in the camera, the hypothesis that it’s run by magic isn’t disproved. It’s diminished, to be sure, but the idea is still alluring, isn’t it?
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3 comments
Comment by Pierre Mhanna on 12 Mar 2009 at 04:29
I can never prove that it’s not run by magic, but not in the slightest way would this be an argument for the sake of magic. An “allure” as you chose to describe it, yes. But I believe that the unknowability of things (ourselves included) underlies our existential condition, which we can only describe through anthropomorphic projections. In this sense science gives speech to things otherwise forever silent, as linguistics gives speech to words themselves. It is arrogance on the part of science to presume that it knows things, it might as well succumb to fundamentalism.
Reading this piece I remembered Bertrand Russell’s essay “Is there a God”:
If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense.
Enjoyed reading and thinking.
Comment by Hermiene on 12 Mar 2009 at 14:19
In no way did I intend this as a reason to believe in magic (and I must pre-empt you and say that I don’t now mean to imply that this is your position), only that without knowledge of how stuff works, it’s very, very alluring to turn to magical thinking. But you say as much.
I’ve read a lot of Russell, and I did know about Russel’s China Teapot, but for some reason I’d never read that essay. I thank you for bringing it to my attention; it was excellent. :-)
Comment by Elcorin on 17 Mar 2009 at 06:40
Hi,
aristophrenium.com – da best. Keep it going!
Have a nice day
Elcorin