The Impossibility Thesis

Godel’s incompleteness theorems and Tarski’s undefinability theorem establish fundamental limitations on sufficiently expressive formal systems. By themselves, these results concern mathematics and formal languages rather than ontology. This paper

introduces a single additional axiom: that a satisfactory theory of reality should possess full self-explanatory power. We define three related concepts—autologicality, autotelicty, and autognosis—and argue that no sufficiently expressive theory can simultaneously achieve explanatory completeness and autognosis. Attempts to construct a final selfgrounding theory generate an indefinitely extending hierarchy of meta-explanatory demands. Consequently, a fully autognostic theory of reality appears impossible.