Philosophy extract

Question

The difference between the concept of "knowing" and the concept of "being certain" isn't of any great importance at all, except where "I know" is meant to mean: I can't be wrong. In a law-court, for example, "I am certain" could replace "I know" in every piece of testimony. We might even imagive its being forbidden to say "I know" there. [A passage in Wilhelm Mesiter, where "You know" or "You knew" is used in the sense "You were certain", the facts being different from what he knew.]

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I am not sure if I understood correctly. Basically is he saying that when I mean "I am pretty sure" "knowing" and "being certain" means pretty much the same thing, unless we mean I am 100% sure by "I know" and that we might be not allowed to use "I know" because it may mean I am 100% sure instead of I am pretty sure??

Ant_222 · Accepted Answer

One meaning is "I am sure". The other meaning is "I can't be wrong". The second statement is much stronger.

Anton

Wholegrain · Answer

So yes?

Ant_222 · Answer

wholegrainSo yes?

No. He rather wants us to understand that "I know" is more that even "100% sure".

"I know" = "100% sure" plus "It cannot be doubted (by somebody)".

CalifJim · Answer

wholegrainBasically is he saying that when I mean "I am pretty sure" "knowing" and "being certain" means pretty much the same thing, unless we mean I am 100% sure by "I know" and that we might be not allowed to use "I know" because it may mean I am 100% sure instead of I am pretty sure??

I think you're on the wrong track. It has nothing to do with percentages of certainty. Here's what the author is saying, as I see it.

"I know" means one thing, possibly several things.

"I am certain" means another thing, possibly several things.
The difference is minimal for most of these meanings of "I know" and "I am certain". It's not important.
(In fact, as used in courts of law, there is so little difference that we could testify in court using only "I am certain", never using "I know". There is so little difference that even if we were forbidden to use "I know" in court, we could still get the meaning of our testimony across perfectly without it, because we could just use "I am certain" instead. Nothing about the meaning of what we say in court would change by such a restriction.)

But there is one meaning of "I know" that shows an important difference with the meaning of "I am certain". That meaning is when we take "I know" to mean "I can't be wrong".

"I can't be wrong" and "I am certain" are different in important ways. Therefore, when we use "I know" in the meaning of "I can't be wrong", it presents an important difference with "I am certain".

CJ

It would have been nice if the author had given some examples of cases where "I know" means "I can't be wrong". I was not able to invent situations where "I know" had exactly that meaning.

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