Certainty is simply defined as knowing something for sure. Certainty may be backed up by gratuitous amounts of evidence through the reason, language, emotion, and perception or it may all just be faith. The word certainty is one that each individual has his own personal interpretation on. For example, one person can say that certainty to them is just knowing that what you’re talking about is right. However, to another person, being certain about something requires without-a-doubt knowledge and evidence that what is believed is true.
Gaining certainty through language is done often; when there is a lack of evidence, one may go searching for some through other individuals. What is heard may not be the truth, but that is up to the person who searching to decide whether or not to believe it. If “even the so-called experts sometimes ‘get it wrong,’” then who and what are we to trust but ourselves and our own personal biases? Therefore, through language, information may be accumulated; it is up to each person’s own opinion whether or not to use that information to contribute to their certainty.
Perception is one of the most commons ways of knowledge that one may become certain of things. If there is no evidence that the defendant murdered his wife but he is smirking on the stand and is not grieving over the death of his significant other, then one would perceive that he had something to do with it. One can be certain that this man did murder his wife because he is not reacting in the way that a normal person should when losing a loved one. Another example is a table. One is certain that a table is solid matter, whereas a scientist may be certain that it is empty space. The points of views are of extreme opposites, however we are both certain of our opinions on the table. One perceives it to be matter because it is an object that one can touch, feel, sit on, and see as being matter. The scientist perceives it to be because of his evidence that it is empty space. One does not have any further evidence other than what is perceived and yet I am certain that a table is solid matter.
Emotion contributes a great deal to certainty. The question of whether or not one can be certain about a claim that is false is possible. One can be certain that the claim is false. However, if there is certainty in the claim that is false, it could just be that there is an emotional evocation that came from it. A person can be passionate about something that is completely false, but it is up to that individual person to explain his side of the story. Sometimes people take their emotions as their evidence; if done so, then the opinion is completely biased. Going back to the man who murdered his wife, even without evidence, if the person fully believes that this man killed his wife, then anything that that man does will be twisted into some form of information that may fuel the person’s speculation. The person is set on convicting him and will do whatever he can to do so. Faith is another subject where certainty gets a little foggy. John Doe may believe that there isn’t really evidence for a higher power, whereas a Christian is absolutely certain that there is one. The Christian has faith in his God, with or without evidence.
Certainty is indeed something that can be possible in the absence of evidence. Not everyone has the same interpretation of certainty, the only point is that if we are certain about something, we know it to the greatest extent that we can. Personal biases contribute to certainty, but humans are meant to think differently than everyone else. Ergo, certainty is possible about a claim that is false, because each individual has their own interpretation of certainty.
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