'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, September 14, 2010

on certainty 658


658. The question “But mightn’t you be in the grip of a delusion now and perhaps later find this out?” – might also be raised as an objection to any proposition of the multiplication tables.



your proposition –

is uncertain –

whether you are delusional or not –

delusional’ –

is a description –

you have applied to yourself –

that description –

like any description –

is open to question –

open to doubt

a proposition of the mathematical tables –

is a game of sign substitution –

yes – you may well play the game without question –

however – every aspect of the game –

every term of the proposition –

is open to question –

open to doubt –

as the history of arithmetic –

the history of the development of its concepts –

clearly shows


© greg t. charlton. 2010.