'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, May 17, 2010

on certainty 464


3.4.51
464. My difficulty can also be shewn like this: I am sitting talking to a friend. Suddenly I say “I knew all along that you were so-and-so.” Is that really a superfluous, though true, remark?

I feel as if these words were like “Good morning” said to someone in the middle of a conversation.



whether the remark is superfluous or not –

really depends on the understandings of those in the conversation –

and the matter is never fully determined

i.e. what immediately strikes one as superfluous –

might on review be seen in a different light


© greg t. charlton. 2010.