'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, December 20, 2009

on certainty 199


199. The reason why the use of the expression “true or false” has something misleading about it is that it is like saying “it tallies with the facts or it doesn’t”, and the very thing that is in question is what “tallying” is here.



a proposition is true if you assent to it

false – if you dissent from it

as to the basis of your assent or dissent –

it is an open question


© greg t. charlton. 2009.
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