Is it merely a feeling or is it quantifiable? — Purple Pond
So it's not "Can we be certain that the sun will rise tomorrow?" but "Ought we be certain that the sun will rise tomorrow?" — Banno
The first thing to note is that certainty is an attitude. — Banno
One in 60,000 is just to close for comfort. (You face higher odds of dying from other things that you continue doing, because your attitude allows you to.) — Bitter Crank
If you argue to reduce all certainty to the attitude of certitude, then you argue that "certainty" as we commonly use it doesn't refer to anything real. — Metaphysician Undercover
Can anything outside of logic or math be certain? — Marchesk
If it makes no difference in our lives, it isn't fit material for philosophy. — Bitter Crank
BIV....if it is a perfect simulation then how would it make any difference, and if it does not make a difference then what good is the notion. — Cavacava
Unknown unknowns:
All the things that might happen about which we have nary a clue even existing. — Bitter Crank
Claiming that we can't be certain about the sun rising is posturing. Is anyone really uncertain that ice will melt a temperature greater than 0ºC? Does anyone actually think that all of the horses in the KY Derby will either break their legs before they reach the finish line, or that 3 to 20 will arrive at exactly the same moment? Does anybody believe that nothing totally unexpected will happen in the future? No, they don't. — Bitter Crank
then our claims to knowledge are wrong, since we can't be certain we're not perfectly envatted. The idealist would respond by saying we know what appears to us, and the BIV scenario could only exist for the mad scientist. And the realist would be left with the difficult task of bridging the epistemological gap.
We can play around with the level of certainty we want in knowledge - 70%, 80%. 90%. 99%.
Uncertainty is inescapable but levels of certainty can be achieved. — TheMadFool
and the universe will chug along just fine without perception. — Marchesk
How would you be certain that the level of 70%, 80%, or 90% had been achieved? Or would you be 90% certain that 70% certainty had been achieved, etc.? — Metaphysician Undercover
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