on certainty 32

32. It’s not a matter of Moore’s knowing that there is a hand there, but rather we should not understand him if he were to say “Of course I may be wrong about this”.  We should ask “What is it like to make such a mistake as that?” – e.g. what’s it like to discover that it is a mistake?

if you understand that any proposition –

is open to question – open to doubt

then you see – that what you are dealing with –

is uncertainty

and so – to claim the certainty – 

of being right – or wrong – mistaken or not –

is to be false – and deceptive

and while such claims –

may have rhetorical impact –

any such impact –

comes at the cost –

of logical integrity

© greg t. charlton. 2009.