Human Knowledge: Foundations and Limits

By Brian Holtz. This text, freely redistributable as html, PDF, eBook, or ascii, is
memeware: if you find your copy useful, please propagate it or pay for it.

Philosophy
Metaphysics
    Ontology
    Theology
Epistemology
    Philosophy of Mind
    Philosophy of Science
Axiology
    Ethics
    Political Philosophy
    Virtue Philosophy
    Aesthetics
Mathematics
Logic
Natural Science
Physics
    Mechanics
    Wave Physics
    Thermodynamics
    Electromagnetics
    Quantum Physics
Astronomy
    Cosmology
    Galactic Astronomy
    Stellar Astronomy
    Planetary Astronomy
Chemistry
Geoscience
Biology
Technology
Social Science
Economics
    Macroeconomics
    Microeconomics
Political Science
Sociology
Psychology
Linguistics
History
Futurology
    Impossible Advances
    Improbable Advances
    Academic Progress
    Technological Progress
    Industrial Progress
    Sociopolitical Progress
    Challenges
    Possible Catastrophes
    Timeline

Why is there something rather than nothing? Is the world an illusion? What exists beyond the human senses? What happens after death? Does divine or supernatural agency exist? Is the future already decided?

What is the meaning of life? What is right and wrong? What beings should have what rights? What should one do?

What is truth? consciousness? intelligence? What are the limits of intelligence? Of logic? Could a machine think? Does free will exist?

How did the universe begin? How will it end? What laws govern it? Why are those laws as they are?

How old is the universe? How big is it? What happened before the Big Bang? Does the universe have a center? An edge? What is the universe expanding into?

What is life? How did life arise? What explains its complexity?

How did mind and language arise? How does the brain work?

Is there life and intelligence beyond earth?

How do politics and economics work? What system is best?

How and why do men and women behave differently?

How and why have human civilizations developed differently?

Will humanity suffer cultural decline? economic crash? tyranny? resource depletion? overpopulation? runaway pollution? pandemic? interplanetary impact? nuclear catastrophe? nanotech plague?

Will humanity experience divine salvation? loss of faith? paranormal abilities? alien contact? time travel? warp travel? machine or human superintelligence? immortality?

What will happen in the next: hundred years? thousand years? million years? billion years? trillion years?

This evolving hypertext is a systematic statement of what humanity does and does not know, and can and cannot know, about the answers to these and hundreds of other such questions. It summarizes what human civilization has learned, identifying for each subdivision of human knowledge its fundamental concepts, principles, mysteries, and misunderstandings. It asserts a worldview of scientific positivism and libertarian capitalism that it predicts will guide future human thought and action.

Brian in his house in San Carlos, CA.

Brian Holtz has been designing Internet software for Yahoo and Sun Microsystems in Silicon Valley since 1990. He is a husband, father, and author of ToolTalk and Open Protocols (Prentice Hall, 1994). He holds an M.S. in AI from the U. of Michigan and a B.S. in computer science from the U. of S. Miss. Honors College. Read more at http://holtz.org/.

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