'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.




Sunday, August 22, 2010

on certainty 600


600. What kind of grounds do I have for trusting text-books of experimental physics?

I have no grounds for not trusting them. And I trust them. I know how such books are produced – or rather I believe I know. I have some evidence, but it does not go very far and is of a scattered kind. I have heard, seen and read various things.  



if by ‘grounds’ – you mean – certainties –

there are no grounds –

if on the other hand – if you mean – ‘accepted practices’ –

then that’s it –

yes – you will have supposed authorities thrown at you –

but all that amounts to is persuasion –

rhetoric

and any so called ‘evidence’ –

is open to question –

open to doubt

the real value of evidence

is that it points us to uncertainty –

and in so doing –

destroys illusion

and pretension


© greg t. charlton. 2010.