No Next Item No Next Conference Can't Favor Can't Forget Item List Conference Home Entrance    Help
View Responses


Grex Paradox Item 13: No Statement Can Be Proven With Absolute Certitude
Entered by nephi on Wed Feb 1 08:01:38 UTC 1995:

Is it possible to truthfully say that no statement can be proven with 
absolute certitude? 

What does this mean?  

34 responses total.



#1 of 34 by phreakus on Thu Feb 2 18:17:28 1995:

This is the sort of question that only serves the purpose of twisting one's mi
mind into a pretzel.


#2 of 34 by nephi on Sat Feb 4 11:43:40 1995:

What's wrong with that?  

Really, though, what do people think about #0?  Does it mean that at least
one statement *can* be proven with absolute certitude?  


#3 of 34 by groove on Mon Feb 20 19:05:20 1995:

'tis better to ask whether or not anything *absoulute* exits.


#4 of 34 by selena on Fri Mar 24 19:06:55 1995:

The only thing that can be proven with an absolute certitude is that nothing
(Except this statement) can be proven with an absolute certitude.


#5 of 34 by nephi on Sat Mar 25 08:31:58 1995:

Can you prove that?  (Seriously.)


#6 of 34 by selena on Sun Mar 26 06:43:05 1995:

Give it a sec.


#7 of 34 by gibby on Thu Apr 6 12:31:37 1995:

It sucks dick


#8 of 34 by groove on Thu Apr 6 16:58:25 1995:

It seems to me that the statement is a contradiction within itself because
if no statement can be proven with absolute certitude, then the statement
itself cannot be true, by its own saying.

Example:  If you say that "All generalizations are false"  then it, itself
        is false because it is a generalization.

does this make sense?


#9 of 34 by gal on Thu Apr 6 20:52:47 1995:

Yes, yes it does.


#10 of 34 by selena on Fri Apr 7 14:42:49 1995:

No, the staement had a built in exception.


#11 of 34 by groove on Fri Apr 7 18:17:13 1995:

what is the exception?  Itself?  It still has the contradiction.  How
can it exclude itself?  The saying proves itself wrong.


#12 of 34 by orinoco on Sun Apr 9 20:52:28 1995:

all of you read the "eat your heart out, Spock" item if you want to be...uh...
further confused on this topic


#13 of 34 by selena on Mon Apr 10 05:35:05 1995:

It said..
"There are no statements that can be proven with an absolute certaintude,
except this one." What's that problem?


#14 of 34 by groove on Tue Apr 11 20:57:54 1995:

the problem is proving that what I say is incorrect.


#15 of 34 by nephi on Wed Apr 12 12:08:11 1995:

So groove, is the statement in #0 false?  Can a statement be proven
with absolute certitude?


#16 of 34 by groove on Wed Apr 12 15:58:41 1995:

I thought I have proven (not according to selena) that statement in #0
was false.... However, I did not prove that a statement can be proven with
absolute certitude.


#17 of 34 by nephi on Fri Apr 14 07:08:21 1995:

So will we never know if a statement can be proven with absolute 
certitude?


#18 of 34 by groove on Fri Apr 14 16:01:44 1995:

I probably won't be able to prove it.  Maybe someone else can.


#19 of 34 by groove on Tue Apr 18 02:49:44 1995:

the only proof here so far is mine in #8.  Maybe someone should disprove
me?
        I'm waiting.


#20 of 34 by selena on Tue Apr 18 04:11:40 1995:

already been done. wake up.


#21 of 34 by groove on Tue Apr 18 18:24:27 1995:

where?  I do not see anything... just a repeat of #0... with a qualifier.


#22 of 34 by nephi on Tue Apr 18 22:09:26 1995:

Are all statements that cannot be proven with absolute certitude
necessarily false? 

Can your "proof" be proven with absolute certitude?  


#23 of 34 by groove on Wed Apr 19 17:12:40 1995:

not all statements that aren't proven are necessarily false.

Can it be proven false with absolute certitude?


#24 of 34 by nephi on Thu Apr 20 07:49:51 1995:

I did not say "aren't".  I said "cannot".  I see a big difference 
there.  

So, are all statements that *cannot* be proven with absolute 
certitude necessarily false?


#25 of 34 by groove on Fri Apr 21 03:27:34 1995:

sorry.
My opinion is that all statements that cannot be proven with
absolute certitude are not necessarily false.

Just becasuse 200 years ago, we couldn't prove the existance of 
quarks doesn't mean that it was a false idea.


#26 of 34 by groove on Fri Apr 28 18:18:59 1995:

A different idea...
        If we cannot *prove* a statement absolutely true or false, what
can we say about all statements... that since they can't be proven true
or false that we should just desregard them?  Do these statements have
any significance?


#27 of 34 by nephi on Wed May 3 19:43:50 1995:

Groove, are there any statements that can be proven with absolute 
certitude?


#28 of 34 by proline on Fri Jun 16 06:09:52 1995:

pardon my ignorance, but I guess paradoxes were solved more than 2 centuries 
before. Today we wont find any mathematician working on paradoxes.
Each paradox is a problem in multi-valued logical functions.
For example, "I always speak lies" is a paradox in binary-logic or
the 2-state logic but it has been shown that it is not a paradox
in 4-state logic. I recommend everyone to take a book on multi-valued
logic and browse through it.


#29 of 34 by orinoco on Sat Aug 12 01:37:05 1995:

Within a system, you cannot prove that system flawless.  If the system is 
flawed, then your proof is flawed. 

You need to use a more advanced system to prove a simple system flawless.

But what if the advanced system is flawed?


#30 of 34 by nephi on Fri Apr 5 07:44:14 1996:

So does #29 really say anything?  

I'm thinking that I can't think of any statement that I can absolutely prove,
but just because I can't think of any of any absolutely proveable statements,
that doesn't mean that there aren't any.  

I wonder how a proof could be constructed.  

Then again, here's a thought:  I exist.  Does that disprove that statement,
or is it possible that I don't exist?  

Hmm . . . 


#31 of 34 by dyl on Sun Jan 26 20:40:35 1997:

-
-


-
-
-
.......................Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools..

-
-
                               For further study read Romans Chapter 1 in 
                                       the Bible :)
-
-
-
-
-


#32 of 34 by sjailee on Sun Sep 23 10:49:06 2001:

In my belief, the reason why nothing can be proven with absolute certitude
is because nothing really stays the same.  Look at what we are.  Humans.
We live in an ever growing, ever forming environment.  what was true 5
minitues ago isn't true now.  Look at the word: certitude.  It was created
by man.  Man who was created by this atmosphere we live in.  It's like a child
saying his mother is male.  There is no suck thing as certitude.  Believe it.


#33 of 34 by sjailee on Sun Sep 23 10:51:42 2001:

Excuse my spelling mistake, "There is no such thing as certitude."


#34 of 34 by jhudson on Tue Oct 2 02:09:55 2001:

This statement is must be true of itself:

Something exists.

Response not possible - You must register and login before posting.

No Next Item No Next Conference Can't Favor Can't Forget Item List Conference Home Entrance    Help

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss