Epistemology interrogates answers; ontology interrogates questions.
Thoroughness of thought is epistemological; depth of thought is ontological.
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Thoroughness can be microscopic or telescopic: resolving into finer granularity of assertion or expanded topical breadth.
Depth asks of assertions “in what sense is it real?”
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Each accomplishment of thoroughness raises new questions. This requires listening for questions, which is different from looking for answers.
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When something hits a limit in depth, its expands in breadth. It splatters, pools up, soaks in, seeps out.
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We sometimes say “going into depth” when we mean becoming more and more thorough on the same plane of questioning.