Humans claim understanding only by tracing phenomena back to something inexplicable

Evidence

We think we actually understand things only when we have traced them back to what we do not understand and cannot understand to causality, to axioms, to God, to character. — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 192

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: An epistemology that inverts the standard regress-ending move - explanation ends where the inexplicable begins.
• SEED: Essay angle: what counts as explanation differs by era - causality, axioms, God, character all served as acceptable stopping points for understanding.
• XREF: connects to: Attempts to eliminate ambiguity only underscore the disorder humans suffer — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 879