'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.




Tuesday, August 04, 2009

on certainty 94


94. But I did not get my picture of the world by satisfying myself of its correctness; nor do I have it because I am satisfied of its correctness. No: it is the inherited background against which I distinguish true and false.



you picture of the world is never stable – is never certain –

‘inherited background’ is an element of this uncertainty –

and is itself open to question – open to doubt


© greg t. charlton. 2009.