'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.




Sunday, July 12, 2009

on certainty 63


63. If we imagine the facts other than they are, certain language-games lose some of their importance, while others become important. And in this way there is an alteration – a gradual one – in the use of the vocabulary of a language.



the ‘facts’ are descriptions

in the absence of description –

there are no facts

so to ‘imagine the facts other than they are’ –

is to use different description

what we deal with descriptively –

is uncertainty

therefore we can expect –

descriptive change –

gradual –

or not


© greg t. charlton. 2009.