Bad philosophy: nothing is certain

Throughout my life I have encountered people claiming that there are no certainties or no such thing as an "absolute truth". These claims are false, and in their falseness they are useful and informative

"Nothing is certain" is a statement that makes a claim. More specifically it is a statement that asserts something to be true.

How certain can we be, that "nothing is certain"? The statement is self-defeating: In order for the statement to be true then we would have to be certain that nothing is certain, which is self-contradictory. The statement is therefore false, and we know this with certainty.

Consequently, and logically, we can be quite sure (i.e. certain) that at least one thing is certain. From this we can derive several other useful statements, and we can be certain that all of them are true:

• At least one thing is certain, becuse we can be certain that the statement that "nothing is certain", is false.
• Truth is knowable (because we know that the above statement is true).
• Truth, therefore, must exist (because we just exercised it).
• Reason is a valid means of acquiring understanding (because we are doing that, right now)

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