'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.




Thursday, June 25, 2009

on certainty 39


39. This is how calculation is done, in such circumstances a calculation is treated as absolutely reliable, as certainly correct.



‘This is how a calculation is done’ –

is to say nothing about any supposed grounds or foundation

This is how a calculation is done’ –

is simply an instruction –

you follow it or you don’t –

saying it is ‘absolutely reliable’ and ‘certainly correct’ – etc

is really just ornamentation –

unnecessary and irrelevant –

rhetoric


© greg t. charlton. 2009.