The Certainties

The Certainties
Author: Aislinn Hunter
Publisher: Knopf Canada
Total Pages: 181
Release: 2020-08-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0735276889

A vivid, moving novel reminiscent of Anthony Doerr and Michael Ondaatje, about the entwined fates of two very different refugees. In 1940, as the shadow of war lengthens over Europe, three mysterious travelers enter a village in Spain. They have the appearance of Parisian intellectuals, but the trio of two men and a woman are starving and exhausted from crossing illegally through the Pyrenees. Their story, told over a period of 48 tense hours, is narrated by one of the men, who slowly accepts his unthinkable fate. In a voice despairing and elegant, he calmly considers what he should do, and weighs what any one life means. As he does so, his attention is caught by a five-year-old named Pia who wanders near his cafe table. To Pia he begins to address all that he thinks and feels in his final hours--envisioning a rich future life for her that both reflects and contrasts with his own. Meanwhile, in the 1980s, a woman named Pia seeks solitude on a remote island in the Atlantic, where she works at an inn and reflects on her chaotic childhood. As Pia's story begins, a raging storm engulfs the island and a boat flounders offshore. Pia and her fellow islanders rush to help--and past and present calamities collide. By turns elegiac and heart-pounding, a love letter in the guise of a song of despair, The Certainties is a moving and transformative blend of historical and speculative fiction--a novel that shows us what it means to bear witness, and to attend to those who seek refuge, past and present.

The Certainty of Uncertainty

The Certainty of Uncertainty
Author: Mark Schaefer
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2018-08-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 153265345X

The world is full of people who are very certain--in politics, in religion, in all manner of things. In addition, political, religious, and social organizations are marketing certainty as a cure all to all life's problems. But is such certainty possible? Or even good? The Certainty of Uncertainty explores the question of certainty by looking at the reasons human beings crave certainty and the religious responses we frequently fashion to help meet that need. The book takes an in-depth view of religion, language, our senses, our science, and our world to explore the inescapable uncertainties they reveal. We find that the certainty we crave does not exist. As we reflect on the unavoidable uncertainties in our world, we come to understand that letting go of certainty is not only necessary, it's beneficial. For, in embracing doubt and uncertainty, we find a more meaningful and courageous religious faith, a deeper encounter with mystery, and a way to build strong relationships across religious and philosophical lines. In The Certainty of Uncertainty, we see that embracing our belief systems with humility and uncertainty can be transformative for ourselves and for our world.

The Certainty of Religion

The Certainty of Religion
Author: Frederick Storrs Turner
Publisher:
Total Pages: 160
Release: 1907
Genre: Knowledge, Theory of (Religion)
ISBN:

Negative Certainties

Negative Certainties
Author: Jean-Luc Marion
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2020-10-28
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 022680710X

Now in paperback, Jean-Luc Marion's groundbreaking philosophy of human uncertainty. In Negative Certainties, renowned philosopher Jean-Luc Marion challenges some of the most fundamental assumptions we have developed about knowledge: that it is categorical, predicative, and positive. Following Descartes, Kant, and Heidegger, he looks toward our finitude and the limits of our reason. He asks an astonishingly simple—but profoundly provocative—question in order to open up an entirely new way of thinking about knowledge: Isn’t our uncertainty, our finitude, and rational limitations, one of the few things we can be certain about? Marion shows how the assumption of knowledge as positive demands a reductive epistemology that disregards immeasurable or disorderly phenomena. He shows that we have experiences every day that have no identifiable causes or predictable reasons and that these constitute a very real knowledge—a knowledge of the limits of what can be known. Establishing this “negative certainty,” Marion applies it to four aporias, or issues of certain uncertainty: the definition of man; the nature of God; the unconditionality of the gift; and the unpredictability of events. Translated for the first time into English, Negative Certainties is an invigorating work of epistemological inquiry that will take a central place in Marion’s oeuvre.

Quitting Certainties

Quitting Certainties
Author: Michael G. Titelbaum
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2013
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0199658307

This book presents a new Bayesian framework for modeling rational degrees of belief, called the Certainty-Loss Framework.

The Certainty of Uncertainty

The Certainty of Uncertainty
Author: Mark Schaefer
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2018-08-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532653433

The world is full of people who are very certain—in politics, in religion, in all manner of things. In addition, political, religious, and social organizations are marketing certainty as a cure all to all life’s problems. But is such certainty possible? Or even good? The Certainty of Uncertainty explores the question of certainty by looking at the reasons human beings crave certainty and the religious responses we frequently fashion to help meet that need. The book takes an in-depth view of religion, language, our senses, our science, and our world to explore the inescapable uncertainties they reveal. We find that the certainty we crave does not exist. As we reflect on the unavoidable uncertainties in our world, we come to understand that letting go of certainty is not only necessary, it’s beneficial. For, in embracing doubt and uncertainty, we find a more meaningful and courageous religious faith, a deeper encounter with mystery, and a way to build strong relationships across religious and philosophical lines. In The Certainty of Uncertainty, we see that embracing our belief systems with humility and uncertainty can be transformative for ourselves and for our world.

A Modest Certainty

A Modest Certainty
Author: Frank D. Schubert
Publisher: University Press of America
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2012-10-04
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0761858989

The central problem of philosophy is the problem of certainty. What does it mean to be sure? Are there ideas beyond the possibility of error or refutation? What does it mean for a notion to be incorrigible? In this book, Frank D. Schubert squarely addresses the question of whether there is a single standard of certainty that can be applied to such disparate areas as logic, mathematics, politics, religion, familial/tribal commitments, and science. Schubert proposes a common standard for assessing certainty — the certainty of knowing one’s own personal proper name — as a standard that can establish common ground within each widely disparate area. The result is a new “philosophy in a grand manner” and a powerful ethical proposal for our time.

The Certainty Trap

The Certainty Trap
Author: Ilana Redstone
Publisher: Pitchstone Publishing (US&CA)
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2024-09-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1634312570

When we're in the Certainty Trap, we tend to view people who disagree with us as hateful, ignorant, or just plain stupid. When it comes to heated social and political issues in particular, many of us know this feeling well— a consuming state of righteous indignation and moral outrage. And this response makes sense because our very certainty tells us that there are simple and obvious causes and solutions to the hot-button issues we care about most. But the things we care about the most are— far more often than not— morally and ethically complex. If the problems that divide us are inherently complicated, then a sense that the answers are obvious— and that anyone who disagrees must be deficient in some way— is misplaced. It's an oversimplification that both leads to and reflects faulty thinking. When we're certain, we not only fail to recognize the possibility that we're wrong but also fail to be clear about the principles and values that drive our disagreement in the first place. By committing to challenging and clarifying our thinking— by avoiding the trap certainty sets for us— we can increase social trust, reduce political polarization, and better address the world's pressing challenges.