勿信人言
勿信人言
勿信人言
勿信人言
Naval:
《无限的开端》不是一本容易读的书。多伊奇是为其他物理学家和哲学家写的。他有一个他尊重的特定同行群体，那个群体也尊重他，他必须在他们的水平上与他们交流。
我想理解书中的原理，以便自己确认或反驳它们。我喜欢皇家学会的古老座右铭”Nullius in Verba”，意思是”勿信人言”。换句话说，自己弄清楚。这是了解任何事情的唯一途径。
为此，我读了这本书，并开始阅读相关的博客文章。最终我遇到了布雷特·霍尔，并开始收听他的播客《ToKCast》，即”知识理论播客”。我邀请他来到这个播客讨论《无限的开端》中的观点。
布雷特，收听你的播客帮助我厘清了许多这些原理。我很想探讨这些观点的深度、清晰度、广度和重要性。然后希望有人能因此变得更聪明。
布雷特·霍尔:
你好，纳瓦尔，很高兴来到这里。你提出了《无限的开端》中许多有趣的方面，这本书已经成为我真正的热情所在。像许多进入科学领域的人一样，当我在学校时，我想：“嗯，我想成为一名天文学家，所以我要去大学读物理学位，然后读天文学位，然后成为专业天文学家。”
有一天我在书店里拿起大卫·多伊奇的《现实的构造》开始阅读。第一章描述了我一生中试图实现的目标。它用语言表达了我感觉我的大学学习和一般人生观所追求的东西。
多伊奇说，古代哲学家认为他们能够理解整个世界。然而，随着时间推移，现代科学使这看起来像是一个不可能的项目。你不可能了解关于现实的一切。要知道的东西太多了。
你怎么可能知道一切？
Nullius in Verba
Nullius in Verba
Take no one’s word for it
Naval:
The Beginning of Infinity is not an easy book to read. Deutsch wrote it for other physicists and philosophers. He has a certain peer group that he respects, and that respects him, and he has to meet them at their level.
I wanted to understand the principles in the book so I could confirm or refute them for myself. I love the old motto from the Royal Society, “Nullius in Verba,” which means, “Take no one’s word for it.” In other words, figure it out yourself. That’s the only way to know anything.
To do that, I was reading the book and started reading blog posts on it. Eventually I came across Brett Hall and started listening to his podcast, ToKCast, which stands for the “Theory of Knowledge-Cast.” I’ve brought him on this podcast to discuss the ideas in The Beginning of Infinity.
Brett, listening to your podcast helped me clarify a lot of these principles. I would love to explore the depth, clarity, reach, and importance of these ideas. Then hopefully someone out there can become smarter by it.
Brett Hall:
Hello Naval, it’s great to be here. You’ve raised so many interesting aspects of The Beginning of Infinity, which has become a real passion of mine. Like a lot of people who enter science, when I was at school I thought, “Well, I want to be an astronomer, so I’ll go to a university and do a physics degree, then do an astronomy degree, and then become a professional astronomer.”
One day I picked up David Deutsch’s The Fabric of Reality in a bookstore and started reading it. The first chapter described what I was trying to achieve in my life. It was putting into words what I felt my university studies and my general outlook on life was about.
Deutsch says that the ancient philosophers thought they could get an understanding of the entire world. As time passed, though, modern science made it seem as though this was an impossible project. There’s no way you could understand everything about reality. There’s too much to know.
How could you possibly know everything?