'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 20, 2010

on certainty 421


421. I am in England. Everything around me tells me so; wherever and however I let my thoughts turn, they confirm this for me at once. – But might I not be shaken if things such as I don’t dream of at present were to happen?



yes – you would be shaken – anyone would be –

and it would be clear that all the bolstering you had given your propositions
                                                                                                                              
your assertions –

with claims to knowledge – claims to certainty –

has come to nothing –

such claims might have given you a sense of security –

of foundation –

but ‘if such things as I don’t dream of at present were to happen’

those claims would be seen for what they really are –

illusory –

and what you are left with –

is what you started with –

uncertainty


© greg t. charlton. 2010.