'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.




Monday, April 26, 2010

on certainty 433


433.  So if I say to someone “I know that that’s a tree”, it is as if I told him “that’s a tree; you can absolutely rely on it; there is no doubt about it”. And a philosopher could only use the statement to show that this form of speech is actually used. But if his use of it is not to be merely an observation about English grammar, he must give the circumstances in which it functions.



such a statement will function –

in whatever circumstance –

pretense and deception –

have a chance


© greg t. charlton. 2010.