on certainty 667

667. Even if I came to country where they believed that people were taken to the moon in their dreams, I couldn’t say to them: “I have never been on the moon. – Of course I may be mistaken”. And to their question “Mayn’t you be mistaken?” I should have to answer: No.”

to ask ‘mayn’t you be mistaken?’ –

is to ask – are you certain?

if you answer – yes –

what is the point of saying –

‘I may be mistaken’?

to say this is really no more than to pretend –

that there is some doubt

if you are certain –

there is no doubt

but then it might be useful –

from a rhetorical point of view –

to pretend doubt

to give the impression –

of having an open mind

you can either be certain or uncertain here –

if you are certain – the mistake is a pretense –

a bogus concept – of use to the fraud

if you are uncertain –

it doesn’t come up at all

© greg t. charlton. 2010.