Sy Borg wrote:I must concede that, technically, there may be small differences between belief and certainty.
Steve3007 wrote: ↑October 18th, 2021, 5:04 am
If that's how you use those words no problem. My own view is that they're entirely different things. As I've said, I think certainties are things like tautologies - things that it would be a self contradiction to deny; that are true by definition; that are true due to the logical structure of the language in which they're written.
Sy Borg wrote: ↑October 18th, 2021, 5:26 am
According to the dictionary, certainty is "the state of being completely confident or having no doubt about something". You seem to be using the term "certainty" in a specialised way, as if certainty is an objective state of things rather than a state of mind, as per the above definition. I think uncertainty has a specific meaning in physics, but the issue here relates to subjective certainty.
I think there are two issues here, conflated. 1. An issue of vocabulary, and 2. The extent to which we can be certain of anything in the 'real' world.
1. It is convenient for us to have a couple of words to indicate how certain (
) we are about something. This is in itself confusing, as we are forcing a spectrum into a binary mould. For certainty is surely, in practice, a spectrum. But simple convenience is maybe (
) a justification for this?
There is a general (but not universal) consensus here, "Knowing" is when we're sure of something; "belief" is when we think something is
probably the case. And degrees of "certainty" express how close to "know" or "believe" we are. This is not an
edict, of course, but it is a selection of meanings that are widely used.
The terms we use for this don't matter, but most of us are willing to use "know" and "believe". Those who prefer other ways of expressing this are not wrong, though, as the consensus is not universal among the population and/or among dictionaries.
2. Uncertainty, in all its many manifestations, is prevalent in the real world. There is much debate as to the degree to which this applies, but the scientific concepts of quantum uncertainty and Godel's incompleteness are widely-accepted examples. The metaphysical uncertainty that calls stuff like Objectivism into question is less universally accepted, but still a contributing factor. This is a difficult and involved philosophical matter, as opposed to an issue of vocabulary. Of these two issues, surely the philosophical one is the most relevant to us, here in this forum?
P.S. As far as I can see, Steve is using "certainty" in pretty much the way the dictionary defines it. Certainty is certainly (
) a personal assertion of 'convincedness' and not an "objective state of things", but it is still used in the dictionary sense, I believe.