on certainty 513

513. What if something really unheard-of happened? – If I, say, saw houses gradually turning into steam without any obvious cause, if the cattle in the fields stood on their heads and laughed and spoke comprehensible words: if trees gradually changed into men and men into trees. Now was I right when I said before all these things happened “I know that that’s a house” etc., or simply “that’s a house” etc.?

forget about claiming to know –

that is just pretense and rhetoric

if ‘that’s a house’ – worked for you –

prior to the strange occurrences –

then you were right to use it –

however this is not to say that –

‘that’s a house’ –

was the only description –

you could have used –

there are any number of ways –

of describing any state of affairs

as to why you use  –

the description that you do?

any answer given –

will in any final sense be –

speculation

© greg t. charlton. 2010.