'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, January 20, 2010

on certainty 244


244. If someone says “I have a body”, he can be asked “Who is speaking here with this mouth?”



the answer will be –

‘I am’

now do we have a mystery here?

the nature of the ‘I’?

the relation of the ‘I’ to the ‘body’?

yes we can go down that path

the really interesting thing is that –

we make a statement like ‘I have a body’ –

and operate with it –

without knowing with any certainty –

what we are talking about –

and it seems we are understood

language on such a view –

simply marks the unknown –

the unknown we operate in –

dare I say –

without any difficulty?


© greg t. charlton. 2010.