concept

certainty

Facts (14)

Sources

Epistemology - Belief, Justification, Rationality | Britannica britannica.com Britannica Mar 13, 2026 6 facts

perspectiveLudwig Wittgenstein identified certainty not with apprehension or "seeing," but with a kind of acting, where a proposition is certain when its truth is presupposed in the various social activities of a community.

claimG.E. Moore argued that knowing that a proposition p is true is not a sufficient condition for the proposition p to be certain, as one can know a proposition without it being certain.

claimSome philosophers argue that if a person's knowledge that a proposition p is true is occurrent rather than merely dispositional, it implies certainty that p is true.

claimG.E. Moore contended that a thing cannot be certain unless it is known, distinguishing certainty from truth by noting that a thing that nobody knows may be true but cannot be certain.

claimIn his 1941 paper "Certainty," G.E. Moore identified four main idioms in which the word "certain" is commonly used: "I feel certain that," "I am certain that," "I know for certain that," and "It is certain that."

claimG.E. Moore argued that the statements "I know for certain that p" and "It is certain that p" cannot be true unless the proposition p is true.

Epistemology - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia 2 facts

claimDoubt involves questioning the validity or truth of a proposition, while certainty is a strong affirmative conviction indicating an absence of doubt.

referenceC. J. Hookway authored the entry 'Certainty' in 'The Oxford Companion to Philosophy', published by Oxford University Press in 2005.

Epistemology - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu Matthias Steup, Ram Neta · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Dec 14, 2005 2 facts

claimPerception is not immune to error, and if certainty is defined as the absence of all possible doubt, then perception fails to yield certainty, meaning beliefs based on perceptual experiences cannot be foundational.

claimOne philosophical approach views introspection as a source of certainty, where an introspective experience of a proposition p eliminates all possible doubt regarding the truth of p.

7.1 What Epistemology Studies - Introduction to Philosophy | OpenStax openstax.org OpenStax Jun 15, 2022 1 fact

claimSome theorists argue that certainty is a necessary component of knowledge, meaning a person cannot know a belief if they are not completely certain of it, even if the belief is true.

Epistemology of Testimony | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy iep.utm.edu Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy 1 fact

referenceGreen (2006:142) discusses the view that a speaker may assert a proposition if they have enough certainty for the audience's needs, even if that certainty is insufficient for the speaker's own needs.

Naturalized epistemology and cognitive science | Intro to... - Fiveable fiveable.me Fiveable 1 fact

claimW.V.O. Quine argued that the traditional epistemological quest for certainty and foundations of knowledge was misguided.

Epistemology | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy iep.utm.edu Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy 1 fact

claimThe requirement for justification in knowledge does not necessitate absolute certainty, as humans are fallible beings.