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I think this must be true. The greater our understanding of the world, and the greater our ability to manipulate the world, the greater the options available to
by Emma_Goldman 9y ago
I think this must be true. The greater our understanding of the world, and the greater our ability to manipulate the world, the greater the options available to humans and the more complex their interaction. The world has been significantly less predictable since the Enlightenment, and the rejection of the fixed socio-theological order that preceded it. Life in pre-modern Europe was very predictable - almost everyone was a peasant who followed the same seasonal cycle, and stood in deference to the same feudal and religious system.
- pc2g4d 9y agoIf one's understanding of _part_ of a system increases to enable manipulation of that part of the system, but one's ignorance of the effects of that change in the broader system remains, meaning that the increase in understanding has led to an increase in unexpected effects in the broader system, has one's overall understanding increased, or decreased? Not sure if that's too abstract, but your statement that "the world has been significantly less predictable since the Enlightenment" made me wonder, because you'd think "less predictable" means that understanding has gone down.
- Emma_Goldman 9y agoI would draw a sharp distinction between 'understanding' and 'predictability'. Understanding is about our knowledge of and ability to manipulate the world. Predictability is our ability to reliably forecast the future of the social world. Of course our understanding has increased. But that has generated rapid and accelerating changes in society and a monumental increase in its complexity, which together, make it significantly harder to predict the future of the social world. I am not saying that we don't have a better predictive grasp of the natural world. We obviously do.