'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, April 06, 2010

on certainty 394


394.  “This is one of the things that I cannot doubt.”



if it’s something you cannot doubt –

it is something –

you cannot know

and if it’s something you cannot know –

it’s something –

you can’t speak of

and so the sentence –

‘this is one of the things that I cannot doubt’ –

is a fraud

perhaps by asserting this sentence –

you can pretend certainty –

but it is just a pretence –

whether you are talking to yourself –

or someone else

and it’s a pretence –

based on ignorance –

and stupidity


© greg t. charlton. 2010.