Certainty

Summary

Dominique Pagani defines certainty through its opposition to truth, an opposition he traces back to Hegel: certainty is merely the subjective aspect, assent, the force of what one has an interest in believing1. He often repeats the phrase "it is a long way from certainty to truth" and illustrates it with the same example: nothing is more certain than the stillness of the ground, yet the earth revolves around the sun23. Certainty is thus dogmatic, and it took millennia to move from it to a few truths4. Consciousness begins with certainties, at whose root he places the prejudice of a substantial already-there5. It loses them as it gains truth, while seeking to return to its earlier certainties. This passage comes about through the tragic collapse of illusions6, and philosophy is the path leading from the one to the other. He extends this opposition to "know thyself", to the Cartesian cogito, whose link with language he stresses, and to historical questions, such as the certainty that the landing was aimed at Nazism.

1. 1Hegel on the Beach 3/52 Feb 2016 · 1:29:02
2. 2Between sea and mountain, the standing stones of Valinco (the Corsican Neolithic)24 Nov 2020 · 5:23
3. 3The foundations of the Platonic and Aristotelian distinction5 May 2026 · 24:54
4. 4The philosopher's two enemies: the dogmatist and the sceptic16 Nov 2017 · 3:16
5. 5#4 Harnessed to confinitude11 Apr 2020 · 18:21
6. 6Napoleon, or the reasons of cunning2 Dec 2024 · 30:02

Summary produced automatically from 15 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.