Certainty

Cacciatore

Ian

Certainty is something people use so casually when making a statement

or to prove a point but if what they are to trying to say or prove can be
doubted in any way then it cant be certain. All through history and even
today have certainty in what they believe is true or that what they know is
certain and dont even for a second think in any way they could doubt it.
One example is religion or belief system. They believe in this relying only
on faith rather than logic and reason with nothing to prove or back it up but
are certain that it is true. This means they have a strong belief in god or in
the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.
Another example is the mind/body problem. Are we just a spirit or soul inside
a type of vessel or is it just a conscience part of the brain that results that is
the result of being a highly evolved living organism? So many people seem
to be certain that we do have a soul or spirit but never have any proof or
good reason for it. There is no visual proof because nobody can recall having
ever had any previous memories before this lifetime or being outside of the
body and scientists cant find that part of the brain. It is something that is
subjective to the individual experience if anything. Even in the scientific
community, a lot of what they state are facts are only evidence that might
suggest what causes something but arent always certain that it is a onehundred percent fact that cant be doubted. There are a lot of people on this
planet who are certain that their ethics and morals are right or true, either
because that is what god told them or their parents and culture told them is

Certainty
Cacciatore

Ian

right or wrong. How can you be certain if everything you experience is real or
just what your sense experience leads you to be real?
Some philosophers believe that your five senses can be doubted because
what you experience might just be a dream while others believe the only
thing that is real is what we physically experience with our senses. The
concept of truth is something that only exists through humans so how can
someone be certain of what is true or false? There seems to be many things
that can be doubted so how can we know with certainty what is real or just
an illusion, what is right or wrong, what is fact or false? How can you know
that everything you have been told and taught is completely true with
certainty when what is usually perceived as certain is just faith or a situation
not thoroughly looked at and even just an opinion of an individual that they
think is right? So if all this is true, how can we know what we can be certain
about or if it is just an opinion or perception?
In my research I have found that there is multiple kinds of certainty. A
belief is psychologically certain when the subject who has it is convinced of
its truth. This means that the subject is unwilling or incapable of giving it up.
A second kind is epistemic. Roughly characterized, a belief is certain in this
sense when it has the highest possible epistemic status. Epistemic certainty
is often accompanied by psychological certainty, but it doesnt necessarily
mean it has to be. It is a possibility that a person could have a belief that has
the most likely possible epistemic type of status but be unaware that it does.

Certainty
Cacciatore

Ian

A mothers child may have killed a man and be on trial but she may be
stubborn and certain that he didnt or could do no such thing. A third is moral
certainty. Descartes says that some things are considered as morally
certain, that is, as having sufficient certainty for application to ordinary life,
even though they may be uncertain in relation to the absolute power of
God. This meaning that we regulate and control our actions and behavior
even if it is not certain or false but that it is subjective to that individual.
Descartes brings up his famous phrase (I am thinking, therefore I exist)
meaning you cant doubt that you exist because in itself it would make no
sense. Another philosopher,Ludwig Wittgenstein, also seems to connect
certainty with being something that is undoubtable. He says that If you tried
to doubt everything you would not get as far as doubting anything. I believe
this means that some things just cant be doubted making it certain. In
general, every undoubtable situation involving of certainty will deal with a
similar type of problematic situation. The problem may come about when the
subject sees that they are unable to doubt one of their beliefs, either they
have good reasons for being unable to have doubt, or they do not. If they do
not have good points and reasonings for being unable to doubt the belief,
the type of certainty in question can be only a psychological one, not
epistemic. If the subject/person does have good reasoning for being unable
to doubt the belief, the belief may be an epistemically certain situation. In
this situation, what grounds the certainty of the belief will be the individuals
reasoning for staying with it, and not just because the belief is undoubtable.

Certainty
Cacciatore

Ian

In conclusion this means that your certainty can be limited by an

individual being convinced of its truth unless some type of doubt can change
their mind about it, it could be that an individual is unwilling to give up their
certainty even if the odds and reasoning are against it, and that an individual
morals certainty is a subjective matter so their most likely isnt a true answer
to it but only to the subject and what they believe. It is quite difficult to give
a true answer to finding certainty for it comes down to what each person
may rationally conclude to when making a belief to an answer about some
type of dilemma, or when they have their own reasonings for being certain
about someone or something even if there isnt necessarily good reasoning
or evidence to do so, or if it is just what the their own subjective certainty for
staying with it, not just because it is undoubtable in any way.

Certainty
Cacciatore

Works Cited
Plato.stanford.edu/entries/certainty/

Ian