- Dear Mr. Mcdermot,
-
- It would surely be absurd for anyone to maintain that
there is no
- progress of knowledge. A hundred years ago no one
could launch a
- satellite,let alone land on the moon. And Leonardo da
Vinci would be
- amazed at how much more has been gathered about pumps,
war implements,
- and flying machines. But the knowledge that made these
and all other
- ventures possible is based exclusively on human
experience, not on an
- independent reality. It is judged by its viability,
not by an impossible
- comparison to what the world beyond our experiential
interface might be
- like. Knowledge, therefore is always relative to our
construction of an
- experiential reality and to the aims we happen to have
chosen. If the aim
- is to manage billiard balls, Newton's theory is
adequate; if we want to
- organize the structure of what we call galaxies and
the universe,
- Einstein's theory seems better at the moment; and when
it comes to the
- structure of matter, we are now not sure what theory
would serve us best.
-
- Best wishes,
-
- Ernst von Glasersfeld
