'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.




Friday, September 10, 2010

on certainty 653


653. If the proposition 12 x 12 = 144 is exempt from doubt, then so too must non-mathematical propositions be.



12 x 12 = 144 –

is not exempt from doubt –

every feature of the proposition –

is open to question –

open to doubt

the history of the proposition –

of the mathematics behind it –

is a history of doubt

12 x 12 = 144 –

is a  sign game –

a game of substitution –

yes – you can play the game –

without questioning it –

however that does not mean –

the game is without question –

without doubt


© greg t. charlton. 2010.