What do you know for certain?

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How do you know it and how would you demonstrate that it is certain?
 
tonyrey said:
How do you know it and how would you demonstrate that it is certain?
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Certitude is a feeling not to be confused with “absolute knowledge.” In general if one wants to show that they are justified in feeling a certain way that person will share what is most convincing to herself with no guarantee that others will have the same reaction to the shared justification.
 
No one knows anything for certain except God. We can be 99% sure of something but no one really is 100% certain of anything.
 
ThinkingSapien said:
Certitude is a feeling not to be confused with “absolute knowledge.” In general if one wants to show that they are justified in feeling a certain way that person will share what is most convincing to herself with no guarantee that others will have the same reaction to the shared justification.
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Is logical certainty a feeling? Can we know anything with logical certainty?
 
tonyrey said:
How do you know it and how would you demonstrate that it is certain?
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I know a lot of things for certain. Why would I bother to demonstrate that they are and what makes you think my certainties are demonstrable to anyone else? Or should be?
 
tonyrey said:
How do you know it and how would you demonstrate that it is certain?
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I have lots of education in psychology which resulted in wisdom to the point of knowing that I really did not know much at all.

Inner voices are real, including the voice of the Holy Spirit, but there exists evil voices that confound my inner voices.

I feel quite certain that these inner voices do not originate from the brain, but are from afar. Inner voices amaze me, and I feel certain that they do exits.

*“The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change; until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.”
-R. D. Laing *
 
tonyrey said:
Is logical certainty a feeling?
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Unless you are using the term as an idiom for which I’m not familiar the phrase “logical certainty” seems to be constraining the factors that impact ones certainty to those that fall in domains of logic. But it’s not changing the meaning of the word certainty.
tonyrey said:
Can we know anything with logical certainty?
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You can apply logic to some scenario to come to know something more than what is immediately visible. You can also apply logic to some scenario to come to incorrect conclusions about what is not immediately visible. Some one can feel certain and be correct or incorrect.
 
Julia_Mae said:
Why would I bother to demonstrate that they are and what makes you think my certainties are demonstrable to anyone else?
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For me feeling confident about something isn’t sufficient by itself to try to demonstrate it to some one else. A scenario that immediately comes to mind is I was certain that a coworker of mine was leaking confidential perception damaging information to a client. My feeling of certainty came from being in the same room as the coworker and the client while the coworker was leaking the information and telling the client “…but I’m not supposed to tell you that.” This coworker was well liked, took care of the wife and children of a higher up when they were sick, and came across as a nice person. But she caused other problems (intentionally and unintentionally) and as far as I could tell I was the only person that was aware of what she was doing.

To attempt to convince some one else would bring my own integrity into question. Integrity is a fragile thing. For this scenario I decided to tell others would only be damaging to me and remained silent on the situation.
 
ThinkingSapien said:
For me feeling confident about something isn’t sufficient by itself to try to demonstrate it to some one else. .
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My own point is that hardly anything is demonstrable, whatever the OP means by that word. I say “There is an apple tree outside my window.” I can’t demonstrate that to you. You can find out yourself by coming here and looking. Assuming we can both tell an apple tree from a pear, and that no one has cut it down, you and I and anyone else who has seen it and knows I live in this place, will all know for certain there is an apple tree outside my window.
 
There is mathematical certainty. Equations can be said to bring a certain outcome.
There is logical certainty.
There is sensate certainty. I see the car coming and am certain it will hit me.
There is the certainty of belief or faith. The best kind. Maybe St John of the Cross put it best:
  1. I entered into unknowing,
    yet when I saw myself there,
    without knowing where I was,
    I understood great things;
    I will not say what I felt
    for I remained in unknowing
    transcending all knowledge.
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its certainly possible to be certain but you would not be certain about how you were certain.
you could predict a future something which you were told of in a dream, then tell everyone, then the something happens as you predicted. and now you and everyone would be certain that they knew that thing for certain even if they were not certain how they were certain…
 
How do you know it and how would you demonstrate that it is certain?
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tonyrey,

You should read, “On War”, by Karl von Klausewitz.

KvK points out that no theory can adequately define war, or life in general, because the variables are infinite and information about conditions are uncertain. Therefore, wars are won by the general whose judgement is best ( other factors being equal ). Judgement is based on experience.

A general who bases his decisions on a theory will likely fail, because things are always changing.

In contrast, things don’t change in science. You plant an acorn and get an oak tree. You try it again and again and keep getting oak trees. You settle on and ironclad theory: acorns cause oak trees. Maybe there’s an acorn somewhere that would cause a palm tree, but until you find it you must assume all acorns cause oak trees.

What do we do with religious theories?

That’s a real problem.
I think a religious theory that has no “holes”, no disconnects between parts, but rather is consistent, thorough and leaves no question unanswered is likely to be true.

For example:
The Mormons believe God the Father started out as a man on another planet, and because he was a good Mormon he was given Earth to rule. Having a human body, God the Father had the Son through a spirit called Mary who was sent to Earth for this purpose. The Holy Spirit seems to be another “god” without a human body.
Oh really! How does this system work? :confused:

I find no holes in Catholic doctrine. It must be true.
 
Julia_Mae said:
I know a lot of things for certain. Why would I bother to demonstrate that they are and what makes you think my certainties are demonstrable to anyone else? Or should be?
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On a philosophy forum we are expected to substantiate our beliefs and conclusions. Otherwise what is the point of participating?
 
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