running with harlots drunk or naked: on certainty 465

Monday, May 17, 2010

on certainty 465

465. How would it be if we had the words “They know nowadays that there are over…species of insects” instead of “I know that that’s a tree”? If someone were to suddenly utter the first sentence out of all context one might think: he has been thinking of something else in the interim and is now saying out loud some sentence in his train of thought. Or again: he is in trance and is speaking without understanding what he is saying.

firstly –

any claim to knowledge –

is a claim to an authority –

the only authority is authorship –

authorship is logically irrelevant

the claim to knowledge –

is logically irrelevant

nevertheless –

such claims are made

any such claim to an authority –

other than authorship –

is logically false and deceptive –

such claims may have rhetorical value –

that is to say –

their point is persuasion –

if so it is persuasion –

based on deception

secondly –

context is uncertain –

and whether a particular usage fits a context –

will be uncertain

in the event of a usage appearing not to fit a context –

other contexts are looked for

however any interpretation is open to question –

open to doubt –

is uncertain