certainty

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In everyday language, the term certainty usually refers to the subjective certainty with regard to certain beliefs that are considered to be well justified . B. can relate to natural or moral facts . Linguistic opposition is the uncertainty that is important in decision theory .

In various sciences, “certainty” is also used in a narrower, more precise or sometimes different meaning. For example, in philosophical epistemology, some theorists consider certainty to be one of the criteria for knowledge . Many debates in this regard are closely related to the problem of skepticism . In addition, it is discussed which elements play which role in the creation of subjective certainty, including for example "evidence", reliability of "expert opinions", external circumstances such as the frequency of the arguments presented or internal modalities such as emotional stability.

In addition, the term certainty or certainty may apply. a. in different approaches of the theory of practical rationality, argumentation theory, decision theory, different sub-areas of modern logic, in information theory and automaton theory, economics and psychology.

Differentiation between "knowledge" and "truth"

When the terms “ knowledge ” and “certainty” are differentiated, it is usually so that knowledge relates to the knowledge of existing theories , events or facts. Certainty, on the other hand, refers to a person's belief that the knowledge is true or can be inferred in such a way that the truth can be accepted without problems .

Certainty is therefore not a property of facts or judgments, but the result of a psychic process and depends on the subject. A complete statement cannot then read: "The judgment U is certain", but rather: "The judgment U is certain for the subject S."

However, various problems arise with this distinction. They are based on the difference between "believing something to be true" and "being true" or on the question of what is actually meant by "truth" and "knowledge". Thus the so-called Gettier problem shows the limits of the standard definition of knowledge as true justified opinion. Although something represents a true justified opinion, the reasoning / justification for the opinion may be wrong.

Since according to this definition, certainty and truth are different and certainty is not a criterion for truth, certainty, for example with witnesses, is definitely problematic. They report what they have seen and are certain of it; nevertheless it can be wrong. Conversely, there can also be the certainty that something cannot be, although all the facts speak for it.

Philosophical considerations of certainty

Some theorists, the first Plato , differentiate degrees of certainty from mere opinion to firm belief. However, these terms are not used uniformly.

The subject of constant philosophical debate is the question of whether there can be certain certainty. It was recognized early on that every chain of evidence, if it should not run infinitely far or end in a circular reasoning (see also infinite regress ), must at some point start from statements ( axioms ) that cannot be further justified, i.e. are declared to be obviously true have to. Whether there are such statements and which ones they should be is highly controversial.

For example, Immanuel Kant considered the categorical imperative to be an absolutely certain ethical norm; other philosophers vehemently deny this. The question of whether one can "justify" such principles other than with a logical proof is discussed again and again.

The Intuitionism claiming some truths are from the intuition clear and obviously true. The realism refers to the (immediate) evidences , d. H. Basic truths such as the principle of contradiction , which are not only irrefutable and unprovable, but are self-evident.

The dialectical materialism sees in the practice at some point a reason for (relative) certainty.

The critical rationalism rejects certainty at all, but knows tentatively accepted as true knowledge and is quite different degrees of verisimilitude, although can derive no certainty. Proponents of perspectivism claim that there are no truths at all, just different points of view; Supposed certainty can arise subjectively, but does not prove anything at all. After all, some philosophers go so far as to question not only the existence of “obviously” true sentences, but also the validity of the logical rules of inference. Then any discussion would be practically pointless.

The Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote an important study of the early 20th century with his work On Certainty .

Security in the mathematical sense (stochastics, statistics, logic, computer science)

In addition to the meanings listed above, the term security is used in stochastics and statistics to denote the absolute (100 percent) probability that a statement will be correct or that an announced event will occur. In this sense, security is with Engl. translate certainty .

In this sense, the term has also found its way into everyday language (e.g .: I can say this “with certainty” or “not with certainty”).

In theoretical computer science and logic , one speaks of security when the total correctness of a program or the correctness of a statement has been formally proven .

See also

literature

Epistemology, knowledge, skepticism

  • Art. Certainty , in: Jonathan Dancy , Ernest Sosa (Ed.): A Companion to Epistemology , London, Blackwell 1992, 61ff
  • Albert Casullo : Necessity, Certainty, and the A Priori , in: Canadian Journal of Philosophy 18 (1988), 43-66.
  • Stanley Cavell : The Claim of Reason (Translated from The Claim of Reason ), Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp 2006
  • RG Colodny (ed.): Beyond the Edge of Certainty : Essays in Contemporary Science and Philosophy, University Press of America, Lanham 1983
  • Roderick Firth: Coherence, Certainty, and Epistemic Priority , in: The Journal of Philosophy 66/19 (1964), 545-557.
  • Steven D. Hales: Certainty and Phenomenal States (PDF; 5.3 MB), in: Canadian Journal of Philosophy 24/1 (1994), 57-72
  • Peter Klein: Certainty: A Refutation of Skepticism , Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press 1981
  • AP Martinich, Michael J. White (Eds.): Certainty and Surface in Epistemology and Philosophical Method : Essays in Honor of Avrum Stroll, Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press 1991; therein u. a. Wallace Matson: Certainty Made Simple
  • Norman Malcolm : Knowledge and Certainty , Ithaca / London: Cornell University Press 1975.
  • Richard Miller: Absolute Certainty , in: Mind 87 (1978), 46-65
  • Jim Pryor : Uncertainty and Undermining , Draft 2007 (PDF; 719 kB)
  • Jason Stanley : Knowledge and Certainty , anticipated. in: Philosophical Issues 2008
  • Barry Stroud : The Philosophical Significance of Skepticism , Oxford University Press, Oxford 1984.
  • Peter Unger : Ignorance : A Case for Skepticism, Oxford: Clarendon Press 1975.
  • Mark Owen Webb: Giving Up on Certainty , in: Colloquia Manilana 7 (1999), 86-97
  • Jonathan Westphal (ed.): Certainty , Indianapolis / Cambridge, Hackett 1995

Practical rationality, decision and probability theory

  • Richard Jeffrey: Subjective Probability : The Real Thing, Cambridge University Press 2004, ISBN 0-521-53668-5 .
  • Daniel Kahneman , Amos Tversky : Judgment under Uncertainty : Heuristics and Biases, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1982.
  • Mark Kaplan : Decision Theory and Epistemology , in: Paul K. Moser : The Oxford Handbook of Epistemology , 434–462

Classics and secondary literature

middle Ages

  • Bonaventure : About the reason of certainty . Selected texts. Edited by Rolf Schönberger . Translated and provided with explanations by M. Schlosser, Weinheim 1991.
  • Dominik Perler : Doubt and certainty . Skeptical Debates in the Middle Ages (Philosophical Treatises, Vol. 92), Frankfurt a. M .: Klostermann 2006
  • Andreas Speer : Between certainty and incomprehensibility - in search of the principle of reason, in: Archive for medieval philosophy and culture 10 (2004), 114–139.

Modern times

  • Brady Bowman: Sensual Assurance . On the systematic prehistory of a problem of German idealism. Berlin 2003
  • Brady Bowman, K. Vieweg (eds.): Knowledge and justification . The skepticism debate around 1800 in Jena, Würzburg 2003.
  • Helmut Girndt, Wolfgang H. Schrader (eds.): Reality and Certainty , Fichte Studies, Vol. 6, 1994

20th century

  • John Dewey : The Quest for Certainty : A Study of the Relation of Knowledge and Action, Minton, Balch and Co., New York 1929
  • Rolf Kühn: Inner certainty and a living self . Basic features of the phenomenology of life. Würzburg 2005
  • George Edward Moore : Certainty , in: ders .: Philosophical Papers , George, Allen and Unwin, London 1959; also in: Selected Writings, 171-96.
  • Thomas Rentsch : Practical certainty beyond dogmatism and relativism . Remarks on the negativity and autonomy of language in Wittgenstein, in: HJ Schneider / M. Kroß (ed.), Wittgenstein - The regulations and the open, Berlin 1999.
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein : About certainty , Suhrkamp, ISBN 3-518-01250-9

Web links

Wikiquote: Certainty  - Quotes
Wiktionary: certainty  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations