DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING FOR CERTAIN?
Prerequisite: Necessity Vs Truth
Certainty is a level of confidence, that we tend to think of in terms of degrees or percentages. One can be uncertain, pretty certain, kind of certain, 90% certain, etc. If you are certain (without a qualifier) of your truth claim, you are asserting that you have 100% confidence in your claim, such that it follows that the contrary to your claim is 0% or impossible.
Knowledge requires a belief that something is true. If you believe that something is true, then the contrary to that belief is coherent. If something is coherent, then it is possible, or "can be the case". What this question is asking is, "Can a possible contrary to what you believe is true, be impossible?". This is a contradiction, and renders the question incoherent.
This does not mean that one can not be "certainly" correct regarding their truth claim, only that one cannot be "certain" of their claim.
August 2019
Certainty is a level of confidence, that we tend to think of in terms of degrees or percentages. One can be uncertain, pretty certain, kind of certain, 90% certain, etc. If you are certain (without a qualifier) of your truth claim, you are asserting that you have 100% confidence in your claim, such that it follows that the contrary to your claim is 0% or impossible.
Knowledge requires a belief that something is true. If you believe that something is true, then the contrary to that belief is coherent. If something is coherent, then it is possible, or "can be the case". What this question is asking is, "Can a possible contrary to what you believe is true, be impossible?". This is a contradiction, and renders the question incoherent.
This does not mean that one can not be "certainly" correct regarding their truth claim, only that one cannot be "certain" of their claim.
August 2019
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