Questions about certainty

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asked 9 years ago

1. You told me that nothing in the world is certain – what about existence itself? After all, we feel we exist, and for me, that is certain (I will point out the fact that I have never managed to understand how one can be a nihilist – it seems illogical to me)?
2. If you isolate the concept of truth from certainty – what meaning do these two concepts even have? Is certainty of no value because there is no such thing?
3. In the previous incarnation when I talked to you about these issues, what I understood was that there is no certainty in proof because proof must be based on basic assumptions, and if basic assumptions are something that cannot be proven, then everything built on that is not proven. But I remember that we talked so that I can know that the basic assumptions are correct based on intuition, it was a tool for recognizing the truth. I can recognize that something is true without it being proven. I also believe that recognition is a tool for reaching certainty – it is certain to me that Hashem created the world because that is what my intuition says – it is clear to me. Why don’t you want to think that way?

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מיכי Staff answered 9 years ago

1. I am certainly not a nihilist. I have given up on certainty, but not on truth. What you are claiming here is Descartes’ “cogito” argument (I think therefore I exist), and pens have already been broken over it, and so on. For the purposes of the discussion here, I am willing to accept the certainty of it, even if philosophically and logically there is room for appeal. This is the uniqueness of this claim, at least according to Descartes’ method, that it is truly necessary in itself (and not distilled from observations). 2. Certainty with respect to facts is an intellectual abstraction. I am talking about different levels of probability, and from this I can define a probability of 100%, and this is what is called certainty. In practice, this is impossible to achieve with respect to facts (perhaps with the exception of existence itself, and so on). Certainty does exist with respect to logical tautologies (two things equal to a third thing equal between them. If every X is Y and a is X, then a is Y. etc.). But logical tautologies say nothing about the world (they do not assert anything, but deal only with the connections between assertions). 3. I certainly want to think so. Furthermore, what you wrote in this section is exactly what I claim: although proofs are based on assumptions and therefore logical certainty does not exist with respect to facts, we have intuition through which we adopt our assumptions, and this is our instrument for truth. But the products of intuition are not certain, but only real. After all, this is what I say all the time. Intuition does give us the truth, but not with certainty. Therefore, our cognition is also a tool for reaching truth, but not certainty. Notice that you repeatedly confuse truth with certainty. —————————————————————————————— Asker (another): In your book “God Plays Dice,” you suggest that it is possible to prove the reality of God in the world, and apparently even when you prove it with rational evidence, it still remains doubtful. Al-Kuzari also writes in the fifth article that all the proofs of philosophy are doubtful and uncertain, and therefore it must be said that the Buddhist proof is the subjective proof that we have met with God. —————————————————————————————— Rabbi: I didn’t understand what the question was. You quoted the Khazari. Indeed, no argument is certain, since it is based on basic assumptions. The encounter also doesn’t give you certainty. Faith is not certain. —————————————————————————————— Asks: In your book you say that faith is not certain and this is not understood because something I experience subjectively, no one can tell me that I do not experience. It is like me saying that the sun warms me. And if it is not certain, how can the Rabbi keep the commandments out of doubt and still rejoice in them? —————————————————————————————— Rabbi: Even someone who sees Peta Morgana cannot be told that he does not see. But he can be told that what he sees does not exist in reality. The same goes for faith. I am not arguing about the subjective feeling. The question is whether it reflects something in reality. Faith is a claim about reality. A fascinating discussion of this distinction can be found in C.S. Lewis’s book (yes, the author of the Narnia series), The Annihilation of Man (Shalem Publishing), as well as in my books Truth and Unstable. I can keep a commandment with doubt because I know that as a human being, everything is doomed to be doubtful. There is no certainty in anything. For me, what is reasonable is enough to act according to in all areas, and therefore also in faith and law.

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