To throw more light on the uncertainty question...

To throw more light on the uncertainty question, the following points could be added: a) The known means of knowledge that is our five senses and mind are all liable to doubt simply because they have cheated us many times and we cannot exclude any particular occasion from doubt. b) Our reasoning can be reduced to the apriori propositions of logic. The truth of these propositions might be subjected to analysis and hence they are not considered as instinctively basic.

For instance, some concepts were con- sidered as axioms at one time like the absolute- ness of time and the Eucledian geometry; then it was found that they were not absolute. c) It seems that it is impossible to conceive a thing without affecting it as suggested- by, Kant. Hence we can never have an exact image of anything. d) ~ It will be worse when uncertainty becomes dominant.

Then doubt extends to the concept of uncertainty itself which leads to the Wittgenstein's declaration, "Whereof one can't speak, thereof one must be silent." b. Islamic Theory of Knowledge: A theory in epistimology which was worked out by the famous Muslim philosopher Abu Nasr al-Farabi (870-950 A.D.) classified human knowledge into two types: i. Imaginative knowledge (at-Tasawwur): These are the mental images that are formed in our minds irrespective of external conditions.

The basic premises like causality and the law of contradiction are within this category of knowledge. Imaginative knowledge is taken as absolutely certain for it is not susceptible to any confusion of doubt. ii. Decisive knowledge (at-Tgdiq): This includes all our knowledge which comes as a result of a mental decision (i.e., all inferred knowledge). This cannot be taken as absolutely certain because our senses have de- ceived us many times and mental inefficiency cannot be discarded.

It could be proposed that the best defini- tion of a certain proposition is that which the mind cannot but see. That includes the mental images in our brain. Hence the existence of these mental images is absolutely certain. Doubt remains about their representation of external realities. The premises of human knowledge such as "causality" could be considered as properties and interaction characteristics of the mental images and hence they are absolutely true.

Doubt creeps in about the course of analysis, synthesis and deductions by the brain, because of its liability to errors and its imperfect nature.