"To be certain about something-really, completely certain, the way my New York friend was about jazz-you have to do a lot of quiet, unconscious work. You have to ignore the ways you might be wrong. You have to assume that the version of the world you can see from your specific vantage point, with your specific history and your specific blind spots, is the version of the world."
"Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one. Voltaire isn't saying certainty is overconfident. He's saying it's funny. He's saying it should be laughed at."
Certainty often demands ignoring personal limitations and blind spots, leading to a narrow view of reality. The experience of a friend exemplifies how certainty can shift from charisma to exhaustion. Voltaire's assertion that certainty is ridiculous suggests a need for humility in our beliefs. Embracing doubt, while uncomfortable, may lead to a more nuanced understanding of the world. The challenge lies in recognizing the limitations of our perspectives and the inherent absurdity in claiming absolute certainty about complex subjects.
Read at Silicon Canals
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