'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.




Tuesday, August 24, 2010

on certainty 608


608. Is it wrong for me to be guided in my actions by the propositions of physics? Am I to say I have no good ground for doing so? Isn’t precisely this what we call a ‘good ground’?



there is no right or wrong here –

if you find the propositions of physics useful –

you will be guided by them –

if you don’t find them useful

you won’t be guided by them

and whatever proposition you use –

or are guided by –

that proposition – that proposal

is open to question –

is open to doubt –

is uncertain

as for ‘ground’ –

the ground of any proposition –

any propositional action –

is uncertainty


© greg t.charlton. 2010.