Project Logicality: the Unexplained vs. the Unexplainable

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This post has been rewritten from its earlier form and updated for this release. None of the meaning has been changed, and dead links have been removed and replaced by new. ~ Troythulu

Confusing the currently unexplained with the forever inexplicable…

This is a common fallacy, and an easy one to commit, in confusing whatever is currently unexplained with that which has no explanation at all, or at least no reachable one.

I hear this fallacy a lot from believers in the paranormal and supernatural, both online and face-to-face, and it’s is a close cousin to the argument from ignorance in inferring that because one can’t think of an explanation that there is none, and in a further move in reasoning in assuming that this strengthens the case for anything beyond nature or normality.

First, what is the unexplained?

What is the unexplainable?

How do we tell them apart?

Anything that currently lacks a known explanation may, possibly, have an explanation out there somewhere waiting to be found, even if you, anyone you know, or anyone you don’t, is unaware of what the explanation is at this moment.

The point is that you cannot say that something is truly unexplainable at least until you actually look, and in your inquiry exhaust all conceivably possible explanations and find none. Even then, no matter where you look, you cannot be certain on a finite data set.

Is it truly unexplainable even then?

Not so fast.

One can never be certain that someone, somewhere, doesn’t, can’t, or won’t know how to explain a given seemingly mysterious phenomenon, since humans are not omniscient, and it is therefore impossible for any one person to know what everyone else in the universe knows, and from this, safely assume that an explanation is both unknown and unknowable anywhere in spacetime.

Merely because YOU don’t know, or can’t, does not apply to everyone else, and assuming that it does is arrogant and unreasonable in attempting to impose your own cognitive limitations on everyone else.

There is always someone who knows more than you do, or who does or can imagine things you don’t or can’t.

As for the truly unexplainable, philosopher Massimo Pigliucci has noted two different sorts, first, those phenomena which absolutely have no reasonable explanation, and second, those phenomena which do have a rational explanation somewhere out there, but which is inaccessible due to human limitations in reasoning and comprehension, sort of like my kitten understanding the math for quantum mechanics (sorry, Mister Eccles…) or relativity theory.

Scientific inquiry, and any other useful process of gathering knowledge about reality, requires some humility and open-mindedness in understanding the limits of what we currently know and a willingness to at least consider new ideas…

…and saying that “ID did it,” “God did it,” “ET did it,” “a ghost did it,” or “psi did it,” explain nothing and most definitely will not get you past peer-review nor win you the JREF million dollar challenge.

Everything that science has ever examined has turned out to be both natural and normal, not magic.

Consider that before proclaiming something to be unexplainable, when the explanation you don’t know about may be just where you haven’t or won’t look.