What is the Paradox of Existence?

[Mentat]

Originally posted by wuliheron
Sorry, but looking out my window the Earth looks flat. That doesn't mean it is a fact that the Earth is flat. Existence is demonstrably paradoxical, but at the same time it shows signs of being rational as well. Without a way to prove or disprove it either way all we can do is accept the evidence of our eyes until proven otherwise, but that doesn't mean we have to assume it is a "fact".

And the Earth is not demonstrably flat, it merely appears to be so.

Anyway, if all you are saying is that people have yet to figure out what to make of existence, then I have misjudged the thread.

 

[wuliheron]

And the Earth is not demonstrably flat, it merely appears to be so.

The Earth is demonstrably flat to a certain extent. Enough of an extent that people widely assumed it was flat for eons. Today we can demonstrate that this is merely an effect of scale, but you can still demonstrate that it appears flat as well.

Anyway, if all you are saying is that people have yet to figure out what to make of existence, then I have misjudged the thread.

I'm saying it may not even have a rational explanation, at least not one we can understand. Unlike the flat earth, perceiving any meaning or order or origin of existence may just be beyond our ability to comprehend much less perceive. This also means that ultimately everything science investigates may prove incomprehensible. Eventually each science in turn may find itself doing a bit of navel gazing without making any further progress in certain areas.

In the case of Quantum Mechanics and other areas the most useful thing to do in the meantime has turned out to be revising Aristotlian logic and studying the subject of paradox on its own more qualitative, contextual, and allegorical level. None of these have proven to be easy tasks by any stretch of the imagination, but they have proven to be exceptionally fruitful.