Empirical limits in science

"A deep-rooted opinion, which appears today as if it were quite self-evident, is that Science has to supply man with knowledge, and that he cannot expect knowledge from any other province of life. .... Science separates us and the objects far from each other, while it teaches us to view the objects in their own connections." So wrote Rudolf Eucken in 1913.[1]

In philosophy of science, the empirical limits of science define problems with observation, and thus are limits of human ability to inquire and answer questions about phenomena. These include topics such as infinity, the future and god.[2] In the 20th century several of these were well-documented or proposed in physics:

• The Planck length - actually a limit on distance itself.
• Schrödinger's cat paradox.
• Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.
• The theorized event horizon of a black hole in general relativity.
• The cosmological horizon of the observable universe.

See also

• Inquiry
• Pragmatic maxim

References

1. Rudolf Eucken Knowledge and life (The Limits of Science) p. 19, 25
2. William Harris. "Limitations of the Scientific Method". How Stuff Works. Retrieved 6 March 2018.