'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 23, 2010

on certainty 428


428. For suppose a person of normal behaviour assured us that he only believed his name was such-and-such, he believed he recognized the people he regularly lived with, he believed that he had hands and feet when he didn’t actually see them, and so on. Can we shew him it is not so far from the things he does (and says)?



by saying he believes

rather than –

he knows with certainty –

he recognizes –

the uncertainty

of what he does –

and the uncertainty

of what he says


© greg t.charlton. 2010.