Science, Can it Teach Us Everything?

Caspar asks: can science tell us everything there is to know about the world? He tells us about a famous argument that it can’t, sometimes called ‘the knowledge argument’ or ‘the Mary argument’, due to philosopher Frank Jackson. If the argument is right, then there are certain aspects of the world that we can’t learn about through science. In particular, we can’t use science to learn what it is like to see red, or taste coffee, or have other experiences.

Professor of Philosophy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Caspar Hare joined the faculty in fall 2003, from Princeton. His main interests are in ethics, metaphysics and epistemology. The general theme of his recent work has been to bring ideas about practical rationality and metaphysics to bear on issues in normative ethics and epistemology.

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