Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: [Phys-l] About the "why" and "how" questions.



At 21:35 -0500 12/23/2010, ludwik kowalski wrote:

On Dec 23, 2010, at 8:59 PM, ludwik kowalski wrote:

Bob Zannelli wrote: "In an absolute sense the why question may have no answer."

Not when we agree that "why X" is the same as "what caused X." For example, "why was an explosion in my microwaves owen today?"

And here is a more familiar illustration. Why is a terminal velocity reached by a parachute? Because of the "air resistance." What is wrong with this answer in a physics class?

Nothing's wrong with it, as far as it goes. From the philosophical POV, however, it isn't the end of the line. There are a whole string of further "why" questions that one could ask--"Why does air have 'resistance'?" "Why do the molecules of air impede the fall of the object?". . . and so on, until one comes to the "ultimate" question, in which case the answer must be of the nature "Because that's the way nature works," or something like that.

We frequently use "how" and "why" in a more or less synonymous way, but they are, philosopically different words with different meanings, and that becomes most evident when we reach the end of the chain--the point where there is no satisfying answer to the "why" question.

And even that is a moving target. As science progresses, we get to push the ultimate question back, a layer at a time. But we can never get rid of it--only put more intervening questions into the picture.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
mailto:hugh@ieer.org
mailto:haskellh@verizon.net

It isn't easy being green.

--Kermit Lagrenouille