'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.




Friday, April 09, 2010

on certainty 397



397. Haven’t I gone wrong and isn’t Moore perfectly right? Haven’t I made the elementary mistake of confusing one’s thoughts with one’s knowledge? Of course I do not think to myself “The earth already existed for some time before my birth”, but do I know it any the less? Don’t I show that I know it by always drawing its consequences?



if you are not aware of ‘drawing its consequences’ –

how can you say you are doing it?

it seems that it is not necessary –

for this ‘knowledge’ to be known


© greg t. charlton. 2010.