ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Paradox of analysis

Imagine you have a puzzle with lots of pieces that fit together perfectly, but you're missing one piece. You look for it everywhere, but you can't find it. So, you decide to take the puzzle apart and look at each piece separately to try and figure out what the missing piece should look like. But the more you separate the puzzle pieces, the harder it becomes to understand how they fit together.

This is the paradox of analysis. Sometimes when we try to understand something by breaking it down into its individual parts, we end up losing sight of the bigger picture. We can become so focused on the details that we forget how they all fit together as a whole.

In philosophy, the paradox of analysis refers to the idea that some concepts are too complex to be fully understood by breaking them down into smaller, simpler parts. This means that even though analysis can be an important tool for understanding things, it's not always the best approach.

So, just like how you can't fully understand a puzzle by taking it apart, sometimes it's better to step back and look at the bigger picture rather than getting bogged down in the details.
Related topics others have asked about: