Certainty and doubt

Use in the book

The ground-and-feet comparison separates certainty from truth: truth is to mind what light is to eyes, while certainty gives opinion firm ground. Doubt is swaying or fluctuation. Yet a proposed wise philosophical doubt would veil dazzling light so that another organ could judge. Its parenthetic “if it existed” prevents that proposal from becoming an unqualified endorsement of a school of doubt. The reported remark about mute creatures values a charitable uncertainty, suggesting that not every unsettled judgment is merely a defect. These are different occasions and valuations, not a tidy movement from doubt to certainty.

Places to read

1. II, p. 502, entry 14, ¶1Certainty gives opinion footing; doubt is motion without firm ground.
2. II, p. 655, entry 8, ¶1A hypothetical wise doubt would veil dazzling light.
3. II, p. 734–735, entry 8, ¶1A reported speaker finds charitable value in a doubt about animals.

Translation in this edition

The English translation keeps truth and certainty distinct, and “or rather” marks the change from extinguishing to veiling. The anomalous quoted English Doumbs creature is retained; the unnamed woman is not identified. Ordinary sans doute can mean certainly and is not itself evidence of philosophical skepticism.