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Literary notes about certitude (AI summary)

In literature, certitude is often used to evoke an unyielding conviction or a near-absolute certainty that colors a character’s perception of reality. Writers employ the term not only to indicate a rational assurance derived from evidence or reasoning—as seen when certitude is linked to knowledge and logical inference [1, 2, 3]—but also to capture the emotional and existential undercurrents in moments of personal revelation and determination [4, 5, 6]. In some passages, certitude serves as a counterpoint to the precarious nature of human experience, highlighting the tension between what can be known for sure and what remains a matter of probability [7, 8, 9]. By integrating certitude in various contexts—from the realms of philosophy and science to the raw expressions of feeling—authors create a powerful tool for exploring both the limits and the depths of human conviction.
  1. The imaginative parsimony and discipline which such a theory involves are balanced by the immense extension and certitude it gives to knowledge.
    — from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana
  2. It must be recollected that certitude is a deliberate assent given expressly after reasoning.
    — from An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent by John Henry Newman
  3. These conditions are certitude and clearness.
    — from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
  4. Twice, he told me, he shut his eyes in the certitude that the end was upon him already, and twice he had to open them again.
    — from Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
  5. But at times a grim certitude fixed itself on him, that, having once loved, he could never love again.
    — from The Cottage of Delight: A Novel by Will N. (Will Nathaniel) Harben
  6. One thing he knew with absolute certitude: “Ephemera” was infinitely greater than anything he had done.
    — from Martin Eden by Jack London
  7. But awareness of any fact may be in varying degrees from serious suspicion up to positive certitude.
    — from Miracles and Supernatural Religion by James Morris Whiton
  8. There exists no certitude—only very [175] varied degrees of probability.
    — from The Mind and the BrainBeing the Authorised Translation of L'Âme et le Corps by Alfred Binet
  9. Whether the molecule or the atom of the chemically elementary body is the “individual,” cannot be determined with any degree of certitude.
    — from Ontology, or the Theory of Being by P. (Peter) Coffey

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