Knowledge and Certainty
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As human beings, it would seem that we dedicate ourselves to finding the ideals, the perfection and the certainty, which we believe exists somewhere out there in the world. The matter of certainty is one of significant meaning, for questions linger in the human minds which seem to be impossible to answer. We believe that certainty will bring us comfort, and resolve all of our differences concerning beliefs and knowledge. I would like to argue the contrary, that uncertainty is essential to the development of human knowledge, and that it is not essential to be absolutely certain of something in order to know or to believe it. Uncertainty is part of human life, and believing that we can overcome it has the same futility as chasing the horizon.
The epistemological question concerning the certainty and credibility of knowledge in part revolves around the definition of concepts. “Knowing”, can be defined and used in many different ways, thus changing the implications of the word. In my opinion, claiming knowledge is making an affirmation concerning a certain topic based on the thought that one is aware of the answer or truth. If someone claims to know something, they will generally have a source on which they are basing their claim, be it experience, another person, reason or illumination.
The rationalist school of though will seek knowledge through the reason and reflection, as with Descartes and his “I am, I exist” statement, which proves through reason that human beings exist. This path to knowledge is in my opinion problematic, for it removes itself from the material world, which is thought to be deceiving, and does not produce knowledge which is useful in the material world, as this realm is misleading and untrustworthy anyway. The rationalists look to reason for knowledge, and arrive at conceptual knowledge through deductive reasoning, and can claim that their knowledge is certain, as reason is pure and cannot deceive them.
This having been said, certain conceptual knowledge is much less useful in everyday life than uncertain inductive knowledge gained from experience. For example, although I am not certain about how it would feel to get hit by a truck, I know that it would not a good idea to attempt this from experience. Knowledge which is gained from experience, although doomed to uncertainty by Humes Problem of Induction, is highly beneficial to the individuals survival, as it helps that person to interact with their environment; avoid dangers, obtain food, and make a living. The recognition of tendencies in the physical world, such as gravity, or the Pythagorean Theorem, are inductive forms of knowledge as they stem from experience and observation and could be considered uncertain and not to be knowledge, although they are generally considered to be truths by most of society and the scientific community.
This having been said, I would like to explore the concept of certainty, and its implications. The term certainty, in my view, does not imply truth, but rather the claim of irrefutability of the position in question, and considering the idea that knowledge aims for truth, then absolute certainty is not a necessary component of knowledge. Knowledge is the manifestation of a supposed truth in the mind, and as everything else in the world is in perpetual change. Therefore, the absence of certainty allows for the exercise of doubt on the knowledge one believes to have, and in consequence results in the advancement of knowledge. However, it would be unwise to entirely disregard certainty vis-Д -vis knowledge, as it is important that knowledge be well grounded, otherwise anything could be considered knowledge, and there would be no distinction between belief and knowledge.
In contrast with “know”, “believe” has in my opinion a looser connotation. Whereas to know implies the awareness of a truth, or a thought truth, to believe encompasses a much wider spectrum, based as much on personal experience as on factual information, but also ultimately seeks some aspect of truth. The beliefs that one chooses to accept largely depend on external