Logic

First: I think every question has a logical answer. is it correct? Second: If the answer to my first question is yes, then what is the logical answer to the question why a cow has four legs?

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If by "a logical answer" you

If by "a logical answer" you mean an answer that is logically consistent, then I agree that every well-posed question has a logical answer. Nevertheless, the logically consistent answer to some question will often rely on information from beyond the subject matter of logic. The answer to why a particular cow has four legs will rely on information about the cow's parentage, genetics, embryology, anatomy, or some such. Logic all by itself cannot answer that question.

I’m guessing that what you

I’m guessing that what you think is that every question has a satisfying answer — an answer that explains what we wanted explained or tells us what we wanted to know. And so my question is: why do you think that?

For the record, I don’t think it’s true, or at least I don’t see any good reason to suppose that it must be true.

Here’s an example. We can send electrons, one at a time, through a certain sort of magnetic field (one oriented “inhomogenously” in a particular direction.) The electron will respond in one of two ways: maximum upward deflection or maximum downward deflection; nothing in between. So suppose a particular electron passes through the field and is deflected upward. You ask why up rather than down.

The most widely-held view among physicists is that there is no answer. The most widely-held view is not that we just don’t know, but that which way the electron went is a matter of pure chance; nothing explains it.

Now this may be wrong, but there are serious reasons for thinking it may be right. It’s not just a matter of “We’ve tried to figure it out and we can’t.” It’s a matter of the deep way that probability is built into quantum mechanics at the very bottom. And whether it’s right or not, it’s a perfectly coherent view. So my answer to the first of your questions is that there’s plenty of room to think some questions just don’t have answers at all.

As for the cow… There may be a good answer, though I’m a philosopher and not a cowologist. But any answer will depend on details of evolutionary history, and it’s entirely possible that some of those details involve pure, random chance & mdash; a stray cosmic ray inducing an unpredictable mutation, for example. So my answer to your first question could have a bearing on your second question: if we push the “why” question back far enough, we may reach a point where answers just run out.

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