On Certainty By Greg Wittgenstein Summary

The Method of Doubt is destructive, not constructive, and aims to destroy and rebuild our knowledge on firm foundations. Once Descartes used the Evil Demon Hypothesis, he was able to remove all prior beliefs which left him with a starting point from where he could rebuild all true knowledge. The hypothesis doesn’t try to prove the existence of the Evil Demon, but rather to prove scepticism of our senses and even our understanding of the simplest concepts like maths and science is correctly placed (SparkNotes Editors, n.d.). Some critics described the hypothesis as a counterweight our ‘habitual beliefs’ (Cottingham, 1976:261). The argument is such a hyperbolic assumption that it puts even our strongest beliefs into doubt. Professor Harry Frankfurt gave an alternative view on the function of the demon. According to him, one role of the demon is to raise the possibility that we make errors in mathematical judgement. More significantly he believed the Evil Demon Hypothesis tried to falsify mathematical knowledge by ‘casting doubt on the objects of mathematics’ (Cottingham, 1976:263). However I believe that the demon’s importance on mathematics is more of a side track from the First Meditations main idea and the main role of the demon is to raise doubts about the external world. By the end of the First Meditation, Descartes had reached a point of total deception. He cannot be sure of what he experiences

This is Descartes’ Evil Demon argument. These two arguments are important as they bring up many queries about how we live our lives, and if we can really be certain of anything around us at all.

Have you ever had a feeling of doubt? In the play Doubt by John Patrick Shanley the reader is left with a lot of doubt because Father Flynn, one of the main characters, is being persecuted for sexually harassing a young boy in his class. In this play a pastor by the name of Father Flynn is being investigated because Sister Aloysius is suspicious that he has been sexually harassing a young boy by the name of Donald in their school. Based on the evidence in Patrick Shanley’s play, Doubt: A Parable, I conclude that Father Flynn is not guilty, because Sister A does not like Flynn and Sister A doubts all of her wrong doings after all of this commotion. There are also a lot of small reasons why he should be not guilty.

In his First Meditations, Descartes also forms the evil demon argument. Much like the dreaming argument, the evil demon argument also focuses on doubt and the extent to which we can trust our senses.

Descartes’ Evil Demon argument is the idea that instead of his God deceiving him- because he is too good to do so – that perhaps there is an evil being of a similar power to God who is in fact deceiving him to believe falsehoods as fact (Reason and Responsibility, Feinberg and Shafer-Landau, 2015, 242-244). The premises for this go like 1. If I am to be certain of anything I need to be certain I am not being deceived by a powerful evil demon, 2. I cannot be certain I am not being deceived by a powerful evil demon, therefore 3. I cannot be certain of anything. This is harder to argue against because there is no evidence for an evil demon existing- however this does not stop Descartes from believing in God. This is a valid argument because the premises do follow on from each other however, it is not a sound argument because premise 2 is

In the fifth and last skeptical hypothesis, Descartes raises the possibility of there being an evil demon that deceives him into believing falsehoods. Descartes has established arguments that either support or demolish the thoughts for all of these skeptical hypotheses. As stated previously, the dream argument points out that people may actually be dreaming when they think they are living in reality. Descartes used his methods of detecting falsities to evaluate this argument.

John Shanley’s “ Doubt” is a story illustrating a nun concern over a priest suspicious behavior inside the church. The nun sister Aloysodid is worried about the problem not being fixed as it can cause more problem s in the future. Sister Aloysius is determining to solve the problem but the priest Father Flynn is not being corrapertive to solve the problem. In the story we learn sister alyonsis cannot solve the problem by herself because of her ranking in the church. Father Flynn is uncomfortable because he has been open with the boys and is nervous of Sister Aloysius.

Throughout the first few paragraphs, Barry introduces the idea of diligence, which is the scientists' abilities to be careful and persistent in work. In the first few lines of the passage, the author features repetition, as well as a slight parallel structure; in lines 1-3, when the author is repeating and comparing "certainty" and "uncertainty", emphasizing the point that certainty and uncertainty are both equally required within the mind of a scientist; considering the concept that "certainty creates strength" and "uncertainty creates weakness. " Along with this, in line

     After he has established himself as a thinking thing, he then goes on to argue that the mind is more certainly known then the body. He goes on to say that it is possible that all knowledge of external objects, including his body, could be false as the result of the actions of an evil demon. It is not, however, possible that he could be deceived about his existence or his nature as a thinking thing. This is true because if he can be deceived about anything, then he can be certain, as he is a thinking thing.

Starting with the background knowledge and miscellaneous information that gives us a better understanding of what goes on in scientific research, Barry gives us a comparison between certainty and uncertainty. Describing certainty, the author uses words with good connotation, “Certainty creates strength. Certainty gives one something upon which to lean.” The words to be looking at here are strength and an action that can be done with certainty that feels supportive. When describing uncertainty the author uses words with a bad connotation, sort of making connotation seem the better option, “Uncertainty creates weakness. Uncertainty makes on tentative if not fearful, and tentative steps, even when in the right direction, may not overcome significant obstacles.” The word

John M. Barry describes certainty as a way to “create strength” and “gives one something upon which to lean”. Uncertainty is something described as a way to “create weakness” and “makes one tentative if not fearful...may not overcome significant obstacles.” This opens up the essay to the audience so that they can have the ability to agree or disagree with the statements made in the first paragraph. He further on describes that being a scientist means to have “the courage to accept- indeed, embrace- uncertainty.” That’s why these statements were included in the first paragraph: to show that one major characteristic of scientist and scientific research is to be able to accept uncertainty/ the unknown.

During the evil demon conjecture,he brought to question whether a demon wishing to deceive at every

There are plenty of negative sides to both arguments, as well as logical explanations. However, it is precisely the negative that brings forward the truths we seek. Let us start with the Evil Demon argument. First of all, the assumption of the argument is that there may be an evil and powerful being deceiving us. An example of an argument might be; One, if I am to be certain that I am reading this book then I have to be certain that no evil demon is deceiving me. Two, I cannot be certain that an evil demon is not deceiving me. Therefore, the conclusion is; I cannot be certain that I am reading this book. The argument is sound, meaning that the conclusion follows the premises as well as that the premises are true. This is the reason Descartes gives to prove that the evil demon argument is the strongest. Because he knows there is no way of proving the existence of an evil demon, and therefore we cannot know if we are being deceived by an evil demon or not. There is some connection to this with the Matrix. In the Movie, people are trapped inside a computer-generated life. They do not realize that their lives are being monitored. In a way, we can compare the computer to the evil demon. Without knowing about the demon, we cannot know if anything we believe is true.

Epistemology is purposed with discovering and studying what knowledge is and how we can classify what we know, how we know it, and provide some type of framework for how we arrived at this conclusion. In the journey to identify what knowledge is the certainty principle was one of the first concepts that I learned that explained how we, as humans, consider ourselves to know something. The certainty concept suggests that knowledge requires evidence that is sufficient to rule out the possibility of error. This concept is exemplified in cases like The Gettier problem in the instance that we suppose (S) someone to know (P) a particular proposition. As Gettier established the Justified True Belief as a conceptual formula for knowledge, certainty

The connections between Ludwig Wittgenstein and Soren Kierkegaard as philosophers are not at all immediately obvious. On the surface, Wittgenstein deals with matters concerning the incorrect use of philosophical language and Kierkegaard focuses almost exclusively on answering the question 'how to become a Christian'. But this account belies deeper structural similarities between these men's important works. Thus, this paper suggests that their methods, rather than exclusively content, contain a strong parallel on which a natural and hopefully fruitful examination of their work can be based.