Friday 25 May 2007

Fewtril #199

No explanation can be found for why a fundament of the world exists; for by definition it is something which has no worldly reason for its being: it just is. If there is such a fundament, then everything based thereupon has a point beyond which there is no more reason — and thus, no more explanation — for its being. If there is no such fundament, then everything is infinite in its reason for being, and thus there will never be found a fundamental reason or explanation for its being. How would we know when we had found a fundament—say, a basic phenomenon, a basic physical law, or somesuch? A non-fundament may surpass our understanding and so defy all further explanation, whereupon it may appear falsely to us as a fundament. On the other hand, we may hit upon a fundament, but not recognise it as such, and thus all further “explanation” of its reason for being will be false; for if an enquiring mind always asks why, and is never satisfied with the non-explanation of “it just is”, then a fundament of the world is the point at which an enquiring mind would be unsatisfied with the truth.

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