Finite Cognition, Reproducibility, and the Limits of Fundamental Explanation

This paper clarifies a conceptual framework based on the finitude of cognition and the role of information stabilization in scientific knowledge. Scientific theories do not provide direct access to reality in itself but formalize structures that finite cognitive systems can stabilize and reproduce. Recent discussions in fundamental physics, such as the problem of the origin of fundamental constants (e.g., the fine-structure constant and particle masses), highlight the persistence of explanatory limits. This work argues that even a complete physical theory would not necessarily grant access to the ultimate origin of reality, but only to structures that can be stabilized, reproduced, and formalized. Perfect reproducibility would render the distinction between original and copy indistinguishable, suggesting that what science ultimately stabilizes are reproducible structures rather than metaphysical origins. The framework therefore proposes that the limits of cognition define the horizon of intelligibility in both science and philosophy.