“Like everybody else, I don't know what to think, but rather uncommonly, I know that” (Fort)
I often get irked by the undue sense of certainty that some people often seem to have. It’s that sort of ineffable faith, or unshakable conviction, that what one believes or perceives is the case. Philosophically, this problem has a long lineage; ever since there were philosophers, there have been sceptical and agnostic positions on knowledge and its limits. I’d like to argue, against the ceaseless demand for certainty, that, in the end, not that we can never know anything for certain, but rather that we should never know anything for certain.
That might seem an odd remark. Usually people defend or oppose certain on epistemological grounds – that is, according to theories of knowledge. It’s not too common to argue that uncertainty might have any significant moral aspect: in what sense might it be best for people to always be, to a greater or lesser degree, uncertain about their beliefs and ideas? Well, simply because a subjective confidence of the sort engendered by certainty can make it very difficult to people to cooperate and tolerate one another. If one infallibly believes in the veracity of one’s own beliefs, then anyone with opposing beliefs are therefore cast in a negative light. And that idea – that other people have “wrong” ideas – has motivated some very hostile and destructive acts and attitudes.
So what’s the alternative? A façade of disavowing certainty in one’s own beliefs, yet whilst privately subscribing wholesale to them? Obviously not. It’s perhaps better not to argue that everyone else is wrong, or that you yourself are wrong; but simply that certainty is hard to come by, and that – all things considered – no-one really has any right to claim it. And even if one really does believe – by reason and evidence – that one has some right to certainty, it’s best not to claim it, on moral grounds at least. Doubt and hesitation are bedfellows of caution and tolerance (what one might term “epistemic virtues”), and these have obvious moral aspects. It’s all right to be uncertain – in fact, it can be a very good thing.
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