Are Certain Things Unknowable?

​One philosophical question worth pondering is whether some things are unknowable. By definition, that which is unknowable is almost impossible to be known. Various means of knowing and understanding, embodied in sensory perception, reason, and memory, are inaccessible if a thing is unknowable. Whether something is unknowable is also firmly rooted in the present, as we cannot predict whether that which is unknowable will remain so in the future. At some point, it might become perceived and, thus, in a fundamental sense, known.

A core question concerning the unknowable is how we can know that it exists with certainty. If we cannot know something, doesn't that mean it also may not exist? Answering this requires an analysis of the various modes of knowledge and knowing. This starts with the "what if" formulation when looking to the past and pondering past decisions and life routes not taken.

Let's examine a college graduate with dual majors in economics and engineering. After graduating, the student receives an internship offer from an engineering firm but does not receive a similar one from an economics organization. The student thus pursues the engineering opportunity. This leads to a lengthy career in engineering that ultimately defines other aspects of his life. Looking back at this signal event and the internship offer, that person might logically ask: What if an engineering internship had not been available to me? Similarly, he might ask: what if an economics internship had become available to me? How would this have affected my life to come? Such "what if" formulations prompt a process of self-reflection that does not ultimately lead to any concrete conclusion. The answer is unknowable, and trying to answer is, in and of itself, an act of futility.

Extrapolating what would have happened with an alternate past as the basis is impossible. This has to do with the complexity of reconstructing a past situation at a time distant from the present and determining what would have happened had one's decision been different. It's not only that it's impossible to return to one's past sense of self and knowledge and the motivating factors of a specific moment in time. There are also external factors to consider, including the actions of other stakeholders and events beyond one's control. With each action affecting others, the ultimate way reality would have progressed is unknowable. Thus, memory and imagination cannot provide an accurate or reliable answer about a life not lived.

However, as an act of creative imagination and moving outside of one's current reality, the "what if" question has value. It also provides an example of something that could have existed (has the potentiality for existence) yet is unknowable.

Another analogy that helps us conceptualize the unknowable is the black hole. The gravitational pull of a black hole is so intense that nothing, not even light, may escape it. Even a nearly indestructible machine outfitted with the latest data-receiving and transmitting sensors would not survive the journey into a black hole. Thus, its findings would never be communicated to the outside world. 

Despite a black hole being an unknowable phenomenon, scientists have developed a theory of relativity that seeks to explain it. Because these laws of physics have proved correct outside of the black hole, we apply the same laws to the black hole and believe we understand what's inside. While the theory may prove incorrect, there is also a good chance that the theory holds. Given such a situation, the interior of a black hole exists and will always remain unknowable, no matter how well we know the forces around it. Therefore, some things that exist in the real world and can be comprehended and theorized about are also unknowable.

Adithan Arunachalam

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