Thread: What are your favourite simple things that science just cannot explain?

Originally Posted by tommo

Yes, we get it. Science doesn't explain anything. People utilise science to explain things.
Nobody cares.

Zi-lu said, "The ruler of Wei has been waiting for you, in order with you to administer the government. What will you consider the first thing to be done?"
The Master replied, "What is necessary to rectify names."
"So! indeed!" said Zi-lu. "You are wide off the mark! Why must there be such rectification?"
The Master said, "How uncultivated you are, Yu! A superior man, in regard to what he does not know, shows a cautious reserve.
If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things.
If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success.
[The link between linguage and human will--expressed by great philosophers throughout history.]
When affairs cannot be carried on to success, proprieties and music do not flourish.
When proprieties and music do not flourish, punishments will not be properly awarded.
When punishments are not properly awarded, the people do not know how to move hand or foot.
Therefore a superior man considers it necessary that the names he uses may be spoken appropriately, and also that what he speaks may be carried out appropriately. What the superior man requires is just that in his words there may be nothing incorrect."
(Analects XIII, 3, tr. Legge)

One can take that quote to sum up the aim of Plato's work, the Elements of Euclid, even the point of Scripture that man needs to learn judgment. They are all one and the same idea. So, even though a few care, someone does.

Science does not explain anything. Explanation comes through the correct understanding and utilization of langauge--it is a craft. As Confucius, as many others, point out, In the Beginning Was the Word.