Limits and epistemological barriers to the human knowledge of the natural world

Abstract

The goal of this article is to give an overview of the current limitations and epistemological barriers in Science and Scientific Philosophy from a very general point of view. We first list and define the types of knowledge nous, doxa and episteme, and the Subject-Observer and Object(s) of study, to proceed showing the different types of barriers that difficult the knowledge of the physical world: limitations in the language, in the logic of the Subject-Observer. Later, we discriminate between technological barriers, (temporary) limits and absolute epistemic barriers. The last type of limits are presented and discussed in some detail: the quantum of action, Planck's scale and quantum gravity (showing the importance of the trans-Planckian scale for structure formation), the cosmological horizon (a limit to the present observable Universe) and the event horizons (disconnecting the inside of some spacetimes from the rest of the Universe). We argue that physical problems in which absolute barriers seem to determine the end of the attainable knowledge, are in fact amenable to be studied, at least indirectly.