The Seven World Riddles
In 1880 Bois-Reymond made a famous speech before the Berlin Academy of Sciences outlining seven "world riddles" some of which, he declared, neither science nor philosophy could ever explain. He was especially concerned to point out the limitations of mechanical assumptions about nature in dealing with certain problems he considered "transcendent". A list of these "riddles":
- the ultimate nature of matter and force,
- the origin of motion,
- the origin of life,
- the "apparently teleological arrangements of nature," not an "absolutely transcendent riddle,"
- the origin of simple sensations, "a quite transcendent" question,
- the origin of intelligent thought and language, which might be known if the origin of sensations could be known, and
- the question of freewill.
Concerning numbers 1, 2 and 5 he proclaimed: "ignoramus et ignorabimus": "we do not know and will not know."
Read more about this topic: Emil Du Bois-Reymond
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or riddles:
“Patience, to hear frivolous, impertinent, and unreasonable applications: with address enough to refuse, without offending; or, by your manner of granting, to double the obligation: dexterity enough to conceal a truth, without telling a lie: sagacity enough to read other people’s countenances: and serenity enough not to let them discover anything by yours; a seeming frankness, with a real reserve. These are the rudiments of a politician; the world must be your grammar.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“Of all the riddles of a married life, said my father ... there is not one that has more intricacies in it than this—that from the very moment the mistress of the house is brought to [child]bed, every female in it ... becomes an inch taller for it....
I think rather, replied my uncle Toby, that ‘tis we who sink an inch lower.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)