The phrase "What We Can Know" most prominently refers to a 2025 novel by author Ian McEwan titled "What We Can Know." The story is set nearly a century in the future, in a UK partially submerged due to rising seas. It centers around Tom Metcalfe, an academic investigating a lost poem that was read aloud in 2014 but never recorded in written form. The novel explores themes of history, knowledge, climate catastrophe, and the quest for truth across time. McEwan uses this work as a science fiction piece without heavy science, delving philosophically into what humanity can truly know about its past, present, and future in the face of global change and disaster.
If the question "what we can know" means generally or philosophically, this novel encapsulates the inquiry about human knowledge and legacy, especially when the past becomes partially lost or altered and the future imposed by catastrophe is uncertain. The novel examines knowledge through digital records, memory, and the limits of understanding across time.
If the user seeks a broader or different explanation about "what we can know," please clarify further to address that context.
