'For the person or persons that hold dominion, can no more combine with the keeping up of majesty the running with harlots drunk or naked about the streets, or the performances of a stage player, or the open violation or contempt of laws passed by themselves than they can combine existence with non-existence'.

- Benedict de Spinoza. Political Treatise. 1677.



Wednesday, May 27, 2009

on certainty 8


8. The difference between the concept of ‘knowing’ and the concept of ‘being certain’ isn’t of any great importance at all, except where “I know” is meant to mean I can’t be wrong. In a law court, for example, “I am certain” could replace “I know” in every piece of testimony. We might even imagine its being forbidden to say “I know” there. [A passage in Wilhem Meister, where “you know” or “You knew” is used in the sense “You were certain”, the facts being different from what he knew.]



the facts being different from what he knew –

nevertheless he was certain

if so

certainty is either an irrelevancy –

a delusion –

or both

and once certainty has been dropped –

if we are to use the term ‘knowing’ –

it needs to understood as meaning –

being uncertain


© greg t. charlton. 2009.
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