On Being Certain
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
On Being Certain
| Full title | On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not |
|---|---|
| Author | Robert A. Burton |
| Published | 2008 |
| Pages | 272 |
| Recommended | Once |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | A neurologist’s case that the feeling of knowing is a sensation produced by the brain independently of whether the belief is true — closer to hunger than to reasoning. If certainty is a feeling rather than a verdict, most arguments are about something other than what they appear to be about. |
Where I heard about it
- Replies to @SpencrGreenberg — named as “On Certainty by Robert Burton” in the replies to his question “What non-fiction book taught you the most about how the world (or how humanity or society) really works?”, June 2025. The full list lives on A question for you — What non-fiction… (tweet).
About this edition
Wittgenstein wrote On Certainty; Robert A. Burton wrote On Being Certain, which is the book the attribution points to.
Connections
- A question for you — What non-fiction… (tweet) — the thread this came out of; the full recovered list lives there.
- Epistemology — the stake.
- Behavioral Economics — the neighbouring literature.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.