Doubt Vs Certainty

The words “certainty” and “doubt” have many varying connotations and implications given a specific context. Even though the definitions of these two words are considered polar opposites of each other, there is one connection between the two that is undeniable: both certainty and doubt can be taken with a grain of salt, as they are all merely just opinions specific to the person that those concepts are presented to. Adding on to that, there is also a concept relating to this; the idea that there is always “the certainty of doubt” and that they are merely two sides of the same coin.

The development of the scientific method in the late 1500’s to the early 1600’s was a crucial stepping-stone in the science community. The scientific method is based upon observations, hypotheses and experimentation. The concept is rather simple, and can be applied to many areas of study. Once an observation is made, the observer can make a hypothesis as to why that phenomenon occurs and can then design an experiment to prove whether or not that hypotheses is valid. Although the scientific method has been extremely useful in the discovery of various things from usages of medications to studying animal behavior, there are still those who question the usage of this tool. These critics claim that since

In this lifetime, we will make decisions that affect our careers, our families, and countless other important ingredients in our everyday lives. In making these decisions, there should be some measure of doubt, to keep reality in check. But certainty leads to confidence, and the overall ability to make decisions and form opinions. This is why one should be certain, but use doubt to rationalize decisions and opinions.

In the movie Doubt, the idea of certainty versus doubt is a central theme to the story. Doubt and certainty are

The article The Myth of Certainty by Taylor Daneie talks about What it means to be a true Christian that lives in a healthy way. Daneie starts listing off a bunch of questions to get the reader to start thinking about their own life. She talks about being a respectable person and the challenges that a person faces in their life when they try to be a Christian. She talks about the doubts that she knows people have to face from society. A big part of her story was talking about what group a person fits in with and the contributions they make to that group. She says, “We belong to communities of belief which help shape, whether we are conscious of it or not, our views of the world and the actions in it” (Daneie p.21). Once people get into their groups and for their world view, it is tough to try and change them; nearly impossible to get them to change their mind.

Voltaire once said, “Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.” We live in a world that is constantly changing and does not grant the certainty that people desire. But, people want the stability of knowing what is going to happen; this is why certainty is absurd. In his essay The Surety of Fools, Daniel Kahneman provides examples of people using a phenomenon he calls the illusion of validity. These people strongly believe their actions cause a specific outcome, when in reality there is statistical evidence that shows their actions have no direct correlation with the outcome. While Kahneman argues the illusion of validity comes partially from people’s tendency to make quick decisions without fully conveying the causes, it really stems from people’s fear of uncertainty from having a lack of knowledge. Other fields of academia, such as science and economics, have admitted that uncertainty grounds their thinking processes. Kahneman is inaccurate in neglecting to mention that it is the fear of uncertainty that really causes the illusion of validity.

Knowledge is key to everything; whatever you’re doing, whether it is planning your daily life or understanding your adversaries you need information. Therefore, the mind is filled with uncertainty without information, with uncertainty come gaps within the information. Although educated guesses are used to fill in gaps, it's still just a guess not intelligence. Most of the times the information are available but usually overlooked by the individual. This type of incidences happens everyday right under our nose but in the military, the result can be catastrophic costing American lives and its resources. On October of 1993 United States Military went though a mission called “Battle of Mogadishu” witch cost many American Soldiers lives. This mission

Throughout history, The United States has been involved in many confrontations with various types of enemies. As a military force, we try to learn from the mistakes made. We have After Action Reviews in order to find out how we can change our plans for future battles. We change our Field Manuals and Army Regulations in order to fit those plans. However, there are rare instances when things work out perfectly. When the doctrine created for training and organization match perfectly to the battles we face. Unfortunately for us, when things go so well, we think we have the perfect plan. It isn’t until future confrontations that we learn how wrong we are.

If put into simpler words, what it’s trying to say is that as long as you know something, your evidence is good enough to rule out a claim, but if your evidence is not good enough, then doubts and uncertainty may be present about your claim. Skepticism is all about attitude of doubt or uncertainty, either in general or toward a specific thing, or to any doubtful attitude or

“The scientific method leads us to truths that are less than self-evident, often mind-blowing, and sometimes hard to swallow.” (Achenbach) People might read something that they don’t particularly agree with, in either the newspaper, the internet, or even in magazines, but it possibly is written by an expert in the field. Then which results that people don’t believe the expert since it doesn’t go along with what individuals think. Now for example, the abuse of prescription pills is becoming a widespread problem in the United States. Folks think that those who are abusing the prescribed medication are doing it because they want to, not realizing that most of the persons consuming the painkillers are struggling with discontinuing the use of the

If we refer back to Gawande’s, Mistrust of Science we can predict that not all “science” is reliable science. There have been instances where we believed that “the sun moved across the sky” and that when being out in the cold, we have a greater chance of getting sick. These are all said to be facts, and they were even said by scientists. Though, we have to look deeper into the facts and the knowledge, because these statements are just hypotheses. They have yet to be proven. So when is science factual? When can we take the word of science and use it to gain more knowledge? This article suggested that “all knowledge is just probable knowledge. A contradictory piece of evidence can always emerge.” This is, in fact, true. Knowledge is just what you find to an answer once. Just because that specific question has been answered does not mean that it is the one and the only answer, there could be and probably are much more. For example, medicine. Medicine was once said to be all we had. There was once a time where if you got cancer you were bound to pass, or if you got AIDs or even HIV, there was no chance of survival after a short amount of time. Today, these answers have changed, due to the never-ending search for more knowledge in these

While certainty can help an individual stick to a goal, it can also be a mask that covers creative thinking and new ideas that doubt can spring forward and bring to

“We need faith to do what seems right without necessarily being sure of the effects

Betrand Russell, a British author, once claimed, “I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt.” Certainty and doubt are two different positions a person can take when developing a view on a particular issue. Although they both play a significant role in shaping one’s opinions, it is ultimately best for one to doubt all ideas that they are presented with. One who is doubtful questions and rejects the established beliefs of a society and is eager to prove that these beliefs are wrong. Doubt, consequently, allows one to discover new, accurate truths that can greatly change and improve society.

In Medieval science lab, everything was about what people believed was not always right by science. Many historical movements such as alchemic rituals performed by old scientist, crude surgeries performed by plague doctors and many of the other cases were considered primitive, which was against what we believe because of science today. However, some of these primitive sciences, called “pseudoscience” (Molumby and Murray, 2007, p.28), have persisted the scientific method, in other words people still believe in false happenings in society even though they are scientifically wrong.