more WvB folderol

[Chris Stolz]

I don't see what the problem with the Von Braun quote is.  

My experience with talking with a lot of scientists has been that
rigorous analytical scientific investigations (philosophical ones
also) do what Wittgenstein found:  they show you what you *can*
and do know, but, much more importantly, they show you what you
*cannot* know.  Understanding particle physics, or molecular
biology, or chemistry, or whatever, will show you the limits of
scientific reasoning.  There 's that fascinating quote in the
_Slow Learner_ intro where Pynchon talks about how important it
is for somebody to understand his/her ignorance, and that
ignorance may have its own laws and ways of being.

I think this is Pynchon's interest in WvB:  immersion in calculus
and physics makes it very, very clear that basic metaphysical
questions are not only unanswerable in scientific vocabulary but
also that these questions are as important as scientific thinking
itself.


-- 
chris stolz		16 oakview pl. sw calgary ab canada t2v-3z9
cstolz at acs.ucalgary.ca	(403) 281-6794


"But you must admit that our ignorance is manifestly of a very rich 
and varied sort?" said Ulrich.


			Robert Musil, _The Man Without Qualities_