Status of Knowledge
Certainty
The degree to which doubt about a claim has been closed off. Certainty is a state of the knower, not of the claim, which is why a claim can be true without anyone being certain of it and why confidence and reliability can come apart badly.
How secure or true a claim is. These concepts ask what we are entitled to say about a claim once it is supported: whether it is settled, whether it could be wrong, and whether its standing depends on who is asking.
Situations that raise certainty
All 11 situationsReal cases a class can argue about, where this concept is what is actually at stake.
- Evacuating a million people on a forecastIndia
- The third umpire and the ball that never arrivedSouth Asia
- The night the exit polls were wrongIndia
- The proof no human has readGlobal
- Does microcredit work? Ask which studySouth Asia
- The script nobody can readIndia
- The economy that grew 89 percent overnightAfrica
- Was this flood climate change?South Asia