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"Completely apart from that, there is no absolute truth. Nietzsche and Wittgenstein destroyed what remained of that possibility." How is the statement "there i

• Confusion 17y ago
  It's just an assertion of a generally acknowledged state of affairs in the world. That's the only thing the phrase 'absolute truth' could possibly mean. The only thing 'certainty' can mean. If I proclaim any certainty regarding anything, the most certain I can possibly be is when I know that a relevant number of people has tried in a relevant number of ways to discover whether we should be uncertain. Scientific certainty does not exist, but a scientist can still say we are 'certain' about something. It just doesn't mean it's beyond any doubt. In fact, even the phrase 'beyond any doubt' cannot possibly mean something that in fact does not leave any doubt. The situation in philosophy is exactly the same. There is not a doubt on the mind of the vast majority of great philosophers that there could not possibly be any absolute truth. That the phrase itself makes as little sense as speaking of the vat in which you are supposedly a brain (essay by Hilary Putnam). That it cannot possibly mean what you think you are intending it to mean. And despite that, it may still be false. It's just that nobody can argue even remotely satisafactorily that it is.