Certainties are usually based on evidence.
The first thing we are going to do is determine that the term certainty comes from Latin. Thus, upon proceeding to study it in depth, we find that its etymological origin is found in the sum of two clearly differentiated Latin parts: the adjective certus , which can be translated as “precise or certain”; and the suffix – eza , which is equivalent to “quality of truth.”
Certainty is clear and certain knowledge of something. Whoever has a certainty is convinced that he knows something without the possibility of being wrong, although certainty does not imply veracity or accuracy. This means that a person can claim to be certain and yet the information they are dealing with is false or erroneous.
For example: “I can't give you certainty, but I think that next month we will be able to buy the new car,” “Carla gave me the certainty that tomorrow she will bring the money,” “I am certain that I am not making a mistake.”
Certainty concept
It can be stated that certainty is the possession of a truth that corresponds to perfect knowledge. The awareness of a certainty allows us to affirm this knowledge without fear of doubt and with full confidence in the validity of the information.
Certainty, therefore, is based on evidence , or on what the subject takes as irrefutable evidence. The obviousness of knowledge makes possible the affirmation and possession of the truth.
Secure knowledge can be referred to as certainty.
The view of the philosophers
Throughout History, there are many scholars, philosophers and thinkers in general who have addressed certainty itself and also its similarity or differentiation with respect to what would be opinion. Among those are, for example, classics of Greek philosophy such as Aristotle and Plato who based their ideas on pillars such as knowledge, understanding, experience and the senses.
Of course, we should not overlook the role played by the Frenchman René Descartes, the father of modern philosophy, in the analysis of the term at hand. In his case, he gave a twist to the ideas that had been conceived in this regard until now and made it clear that certainty was not based on knowledge, as had been explained, but rather on the consciousness that one has. that a concrete fact is true.
Kant, Russell, Karl Kopper and Gödel were other authors who also analyzed truthfulness in depth, bringing with them the contrast of all types of theories about the essence, the pillars and the results that it brings with it.
The opposite of certainty
The opposite concept to certainty is ignorance : if something is unknown, you cannot have any certainty. The middle degree of knowledge between certainty and ignorance is doubt (the subject believes that the knowledge may be true but is not in a position to affirm it).
Doubt, therefore, occurs when there is an insufficiency of knowledge to have confidence in its certainty. Knowledge, in short, appears imperfect and the person does not have absolute confidence in the truth of their propositions.