'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.




Wednesday, December 16, 2009

on certainty 195


195. If I believe that I am sitting in my room when I am not, then I shall not be said to have made a mistake. But what is the essential difference between this case and a mistake?



if I say I am sitting in my room –

who’s to say I am not?

if someone says I am not –

what we have is a dispute –

a difference of opinion

the real point here is –

there are no mistakes –

but there are differences of opinion –

differences of opinion –

because the world we operate in –

is uncertain


© greg t. charlton. 2009.