Certainty: Difference between revisions

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Following the definition in OPAR ch. 5, certainty refers to a particular point on the continuum of knowledge: 'A conclusion is "certain" when the evidence in its favor is conclusive...the total of the available evidence points in a single direction...there is nothing to suggest even the possibility of another interpretation. There are, therefore, no longer any grounds for doubt.' (OPAR p. 179).
Following the definition in OPAR ch. 5, certainty refers to a particular point on the continuum of knowledge: 'A conclusion is "certain" when the evidence in its favor is conclusive...the total of the available evidence points in a single direction...there is nothing to suggest even the possibility of another interpretation. There are, therefore, no longer any grounds for doubt.' (OPAR p. 179).
It is important in Objectivist epistemology that [[arbitrary]] statements not automatically render certainty impossible: any doubt which prevents a conclusion from being certain must be based on the application of reason to observation, and not just imagining "it could be otherwise".
Because certainty is a knowledge state and knowledge is contextual, a "certain" conclusion may eventually be shown to be in error, when further relevant facts become known.

Revision as of 15:54, 29 June 2004

Following the definition in OPAR ch. 5, certainty refers to a particular point on the continuum of knowledge: 'A conclusion is "certain" when the evidence in its favor is conclusive...the total of the available evidence points in a single direction...there is nothing to suggest even the possibility of another interpretation. There are, therefore, no longer any grounds for doubt.' (OPAR p. 179).

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