What Is Via Negativa? - Definition, Examples, and More - Nassim Taleb, Naval Ravikant Mental Models — Wealest

Via Negativa: in theology and philosophy, the focus on what something is not, an indirect definition, deemed less prone to fallacies than via positiva. In action, it is a recipe for what to avoid, what not to do—subtraction, not addition, works better in domains with multiplicative and unpredictable side effects. In medicine, stopping someone from

Via negativa: the principle that we know what is wrong with more clarity than what is right, and that knowledge grows by subtraction. Also, it is easier to know that something is wrong than to find the fix. Actions that remove are more robust than those that add because addition may have unseen, complicated feedback loops.

this way of talking about God in negatives is called ‘apophatic’ theology, from the Greek for deny or negate. We can never say what God is, only what God is not – and that includes anything we try to say about the divine mystery.