on certainty 13

13. For it is not as though the proposition “It is so” could be inferred from someone else’s utterance: “I know it is so”. Nor from the utterance together with it not being a lie. – But can’t I infer “It is so” from my own utterance “I know etc.” Yes; and also “There is a hand there’ follows from the proposition “He knows that there’s a hand there”. But from his utterance “I know….” it does not follow that he does know it.

‘I know it is so’ –

‘I know’ is a claim of authority –

the only authority is authorship –

therefore ‘I know’ = ‘I am the author of …’

and to claim authorship for your assertion –

is unnecessary and irrelevant

logically speaking ‘I know’ –

is irrelevant

any claim to an authority –

other than authorship –

is logically false –

invariably –

the claim of authority in ‘I know’ –

is not logical –

is not a claim of authorship –

it is rhetorical

and here the point of ‘I know’ –

is persuasion –

persuasion on the basis of an authority –

that doesn’t exist

what we are dealing with in ‘I know’ –

is deception and pretense

and it makes no difference –

whether I say ‘I know’ –

or someone else does –

or whether it is persuasive or not –

logically speaking –

it is empty rhetoric

what are we to infer from empty rhetoric?

a fraud

© greg t.charlton. 2009.