There are many things that block expressions of certainty. Or I could say that certainty requires a certain status of selfhood. What is it that gives rise to expressions of certainty? What blocks it? Finally, does it make sense to say that I’m certain if I find that I can’t act on that certainty?
At elementary levels there’s no problem. I see my monitor, so I’m certain that it is there. I see it displaying my text as I type, so I’m certain that it is, indeed, a monitor. I’m certain I understand the way a picture can burn into a screen, so I turn it off when I leave. All these certainties are manifest in my actions right now. The fact that I act the way I do is enough to back up, to display, to allow my certainty to be certainty.
But it gets more complicated in interactions with others. I may be certain of a stance. For example: that man shouldn’t beat his dog until it bleeds fron the eyes!!! But, that man is stronger than I and more violent and I am affraid to say anything. Now, where’s my certainty? Does this mean that I cannot hold a certain stance on things that I’m not willing to fight against hard odds for? Is it enough that I live my life compassionately and try to spread that whenever possible enough? Also, what is that constant self-recrimination? Is that the sign that I am certain but just too weak?
Unfortunately, it gets even more complicated. After coming to grips with myself as containing a good deal of certainties that I’m too weak to carry out in action, how can I express these certainties? Discursively? Isn’t this sad? What kind of response can I get from others to such discursive expressions of certainty and outrage that are not as abjectly empty of meaning as the discursive certainties themselves. Now, I don’t mean to offend anyone, but personally I dislike drawn out repetitave dramatic conversations in which parties blankly agree with the one who ‘needs to talk.’ Wittgenstein’s ‘criteria for correctness’ comes in here: how can you know if you’re certain of anything if the responses you get are always positive and supportive. If you’re surrouned by yes-people, you are never tested and have no way of developing a consistent basis.
So lets say that I find a rare group of friends who push me to act of my certainty and, say, learn to fight so that, should another situation arise, I can express my certainty. I can help the dog and alleviate its suffering, the aim of my position of certainty that dogs shouldn’t suffer so. And I have become strong. And then I see the same guy beating his dog again and am confident that I can take and care for his dog fending him off if necessary. But I’m again confounded because, although I am certain that I could pull off the maneuver, it is against the law. He could arest me and send me to jail and my family would be sad. (I could call animal control but in this city they kill 86 percent of animals who have been abused, so I can’t bring myself to do that.) Do I follow my own law or that of my country? I wan’t to follow my own. I’m certain its the right thing to do in this case… but if everyone…
Can I be certain about something even though my action is blocked by so many internal and external boundaries? If not, what am I that I spend my time wrestling with this certainty that I cannot outwardly express and therein alleve? The guy shouldn’t beat his dog until it bleads from the eyes, God damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!!!
Dave