on certainty 332

332. Imagine that someone were to say, without wanting to philosophize, “I don’t know if I have ever been on the moon; I don’t remember ever being there”. (Why would this person be so radically different from us?)

In the first place – how would he know that he was on the moon? How does he imagine it? Compare: “I do not know if I was ever in the village of X.” But neither could I say that if X were in Turkey, for I know that I was never in Turkey.

any proposition – any proposal –

is open to question – open to doubt –

is uncertain

and if ‘I don’t know’– means –

‘I am certain’ –

then  ‘I don’t know’ –

is an irrelevant preface –

to any statement –

perhaps it has rhetorical value –

but it is of no logical interest

© greg t. charlton. 2010.