What are the differences between "I am certain" and "it is certain", and is passionate conviction ever sufficient for justifying knowledge?
What are the differences between "I am certain" and "it is certain", and is passionate conviction ever sufficient for justifying knowledge?
In order to find the difference between the two, we first need to define what we mean by "certain". The first 'certain ' refers to an individual being sure of or convinced. The second 'certain ' means it is something that more than one person is sure of. The word Certainty means the acceptance without any doubt. . In both cases a knowledge claim is being made with confidence, but one person’s certainty is based on the individual’s perception, intuition, reason or emotion, whereas a whole group of mankind making a knowledge claim depends on many different people’s perceptions, reasons, and emotions. The word certainty itself is kind of vague. It does not tell us certain to what “extent”. Thus it can vary from person to person. A question coming to my mind concerning the traditional definition is how one can establish something beyond doubt, and how one can know something definite.
I am certain that I am NAME daughter of MOTHER and FATHER. However, is it certain that I am who I think I am? Can I rely on what my parents and others have brought me up into thinking? Can I trust my birth certificate? My passport? How do I know that none of my documents have ever been changed? Is there a possibility that when I was still lying peacefully in my cradle at the hospital, somebody just came and exchanged me for somebody else? If I try to prove it with a DNA-test, how will I know for certain that the DNA-test is correct? Even though I am passionately convinced and certain, frustratingly I can probably never claim that it is absolutely certain that I am who I believe I am.
In every statement, no matter how many times it has been proven and justified, there will always be this tiny percentage of uncertainty.
This essay will however be exploring some of the different areas of certainty, attempting to explain why absolute certainty
In order to find the difference between the two, we first need to define what we mean by "certain". The first 'certain ' refers to an individual being sure of or convinced. The second 'certain ' means it is something that more than one person is sure of. The word Certainty means the acceptance without any doubt. . In both cases a knowledge claim is being made with confidence, but one person’s certainty is based on the individual’s perception, intuition, reason or emotion, whereas a whole group of mankind making a knowledge claim depends on many different people’s perceptions, reasons, and emotions. The word certainty itself is kind of vague. It does not tell us certain to what “extent”. Thus it can vary from person to person. A question coming to my mind concerning the traditional definition is how one can establish something beyond doubt, and how one can know something definite.
I am certain that I am NAME daughter of MOTHER and FATHER. However, is it certain that I am who I think I am? Can I rely on what my parents and others have brought me up into thinking? Can I trust my birth certificate? My passport? How do I know that none of my documents have ever been changed? Is there a possibility that when I was still lying peacefully in my cradle at the hospital, somebody just came and exchanged me for somebody else? If I try to prove it with a DNA-test, how will I know for certain that the DNA-test is correct? Even though I am passionately convinced and certain, frustratingly I can probably never claim that it is absolutely certain that I am who I believe I am.
In every statement, no matter how many times it has been proven and justified, there will always be this tiny percentage of uncertainty.
This essay will however be exploring some of the different areas of certainty, attempting to explain why absolute certainty
Bibliography: Michael Woolman, Ways of Knowing - An introduction to Theory of Knowledge, 2000, IBID Press, Australia. Internet sites: Available from the World Wide Web: <URL: http://www.wordreference.com/definition/certain > Accessed the 10th January 2005. Available from the World Wide Web: <URL: http://www.caplex.no/sorenkierkegaard > Accessed the 10th January 2005. Available from the World Wide Web: <URL: http://www.plusroot.com/term.html?term_id=269 > Accessed the 10th January 2005. Available from the World Wide Web: <URL: http://ephilosopher.com/phpBB_14-action-viewtopic-topic-2054.html > Accessed the 10th January 2005. Available from the World Wide Web: <URL: http://www.humanevol.com/doc/doc2003030304QO.html> Accessed the 10th January 2005. In order to answer the first part of the question, the term “certain” needs to be defined. It is important to note that there could be a number of different ways of defining certainty. For example, the definitions “perfect knowledge that has total security from error” and “a mental state of being without doubt” are very different from one another. One implies more room for error than the other. Two very specific different messages are conveyed when one says “I am certain” versus “it is certain.” When one says “I am certain,” it is understood by the recipient to mean that the individual is in the highest mental state of being without a doubt. Since a great number of people consists of many individuals and their unique perceptions, reasons, and emotions, when a knowledge claim is made by all, the claim is transferred from simply a belief to a justified belief. However, even though the number of people may vary from one to many, we must take into consideration the fact that there are various degrees of certainty. How would one quantify amount of certainty one holds, or be able to create a universal scale for measuring degrees of certainty? Certainty within a people or an individual can have been rooted from many different factors, of which one is passionate conviction.