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If you never watched the clip about Dr. Feynman explaining the nature of a "why" question please watch this. It is probably one of the most important things a critical thinker could ever know if they dont already:

youtu.be/36GT2zI8lVA

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@freemo Didn't he also say that if you can't explain something simply, you don't understand it?

@freemo @mate nah it was feynman. I wish he'd just own up and say "fuckin magnets, how *do* they work?"

@kline

LOL I think he makes a good point though. It isnt that we dont understnad how they work, its more that we are talking about a fundemental force.

just think about the "how does it work" question in general.. what you are asking is for someone to break a system down into more elementary components.. So how do you explain something when it is already the most elementary component you can describe?

@mate

@freemo @mate there's a long history of people saying "this thing <x> is fundamental and cannot be explained, only taken as axiomatic", followed by 50 years later people proving it to not be fundamental.

@freemo This relates to what makes a good proof. Any a proof shows that the theorem is true, that's what makes it a proof. A good proof leaves you with the feeling that you know why the theorem is true.

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