The Life Foundations Nexus
ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY
By Dr. Michael J. Bisconti
In order to understand what you
are about to read, you need to first read I'm Doing What's Right. Why Don't I Have Certainty?
Throughout the course of one’s
life, the mind alternates between “undiluted certainty” and “diluted
certainty.” Undiluted certainty is what
most people call “certainty.” Actually,
however, undiluted certainty is certainty accompanied by the certainty
cognos-datum (see I'm Doing What's Right. Why Don't I Have Certainty? for an explanation of the certainty cognos-datum). Diluted certainty is a little more complex
and requires a little more explanation.
Throughout the course of one’s life,
on a continual basis, the mind alternates between two “knowledge states.” These knowledge states are “ignorance” and
“knowledge” and the alternation between these two knowledge states is called
the “knowledge cycle.” The two
knowledge states apply to everything in our lives. The most obvious area is the area of information. For example, you have a question and you
find an answer. You ask, “What time is
it?” Someone answers, “It’s 5:00 in the
evening.” The other area the knowledge
states apply to is perception. For
example, you are hungry and you get some food.
Before you get the food you are ignorant of the (future) fact
that there is food in front of you.
After you get the food you know that there is food in front of
you.
So, what is diluted
certainty? Diluted certainty is
certainty experienced during the “ignorance phase” of the knowledge cycle. Now, there is an experience that accompanies
ignorance. This experience is called
the ignorance cognos-datum (read I'm Doing What's Right. Why Don't I Have Certainty? to find out what a cognos-datum is). What happens during diluted certainty is
that, in effect, the certainty cognos-datum has been blended with the ignorance
cognos-datum. This in effect blend of
these two cognos-datums is called the “ignorance-certainty cognos-datum.”
What is the point of all of this? IN EFFECT, DILUTED CERTAINTY, BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN DILUTED BY IGNORANCE, DOES NOT HAVE THE ABSOLUTE (COMPLETE) QUALITY THAT UNDILUTED CERTAINTY HAS. THEREFORE, IT MAY SEEM TO BE TOO WEAK TO BE CERTAINTY. As a result, in critical situations, people often reject diluted certainty and (needed) associated knowledge (that about which they are “dilutedly” certain).