'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 26, 2009

on certainty 86


86. Suppose I replaced Moore’s “I know” by “I am of an unshakeable conviction”?



if you do that –

you replace one piece of rhetoric –

with another

‘unshakeable conviction’ –

has no logical basis

any conviction is open to question –

open to doubt –

is shakeable

and if you hold to the idea –

of ‘unshakeable conviction’ –
                                                                                                                                
you are either a fraud –

or a fool


© greg t. charlton. 2009.