“Is there anything we can know for certain? With a certainty that admit not even the shadow of a doubt?” /Leszek Kolakowski, God, the World and our Minds: how can we achieve certainty? – RENÉ DESCARTES/¹

I just found on YouTube the lecture² given by Vilmos Csányi four years ago entitled "Behold, the man", and I am reading his book of the same title.

The idea that "certainty always comes from the functioning of the community" permeates everything Csányi says, and this is what inspired me to write. In this expression, the ethologist refers to the fact that the mental image of individual experience, of personal experience, is conveyed to others through language, but only after a community trial does it become an accepted experience, an experience that is considered certain.

Before I go into the details of the ethologist's world view of his own profession, I will summarise my own views and vocabulary to make my views clear. As I will refer most often to the concepts of information, knowledge and belief, I will first outline my ideas on these.

…

Contents

1. Information, knowledge and belief
   1. On information in general
   2. About my approach to information
   3. On knowledge and belief – in my approach
2. On Csányi's "belief"
3. Summary

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¹ Leszek Kolakowski, „Why there Something rather than Nothing – 23 Questions from great Philosophers?”, Basic Books, 2007.

² See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBZna1oApXw

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