Get Real

The main point discussed in this paper is the influence of the evolution of the certainty in natural sciences on the idea of certainty of knowledge. The influence of the development of natural sciences on the idea of certainty of knowledge is an important issue in the field of science and technology philosophy, and which has important historical significance and practical value. This paper discussed this question mainly from the following aspects:First, it teased the concept of certainty and certainty of knowledge. Certainty is a common terms, but the meaning of it is rather vague. So, in this paper we set out from the meaning of certainty, clarify the meaning of certainty, and define the general meaning of certainty used in this paper.Second, it reviewed the emergence and the development of idea of certainty of knowledge effected under the early natural sciences. In ancient Greece period, certainty in the early natural sciences gradually accrued, which midwifed the birth of idea of certainty of knowledge. In the early human civilization, people usually believed that they can find out the source of every thing and they can be the master of nature, which led people discussed the concepts in knowledge and the certainty in reasoning preliminarily.Third, it reviewed the evolvement of certainty of knowledge effected under the modern natural sciences. The establishment of modern science made people believed that nature is as certain as exact clocks, so the scientific knowledge, as summary of the laws of nature, undoubtedly had complete certainty. In order to testify this idea, empiricists and rationalists argued from different angles, but they all ended in failure. Although Kant proposed the so called synthetical judgments a priori to resolve problems left by them, he also didn't make it.Fourth, it teased the further development of idea of certainty of knowledge effected under the contemporary natural sciences. Lots of uncertain phenomenon opened out by the contemporary natural sciences made people to realize the nature is not really entirely certain. So, many scholars have begun to incline the viewpoint that scientific knowledge is not absolutely universal and inevitably. From logical positivism, scholars were not bound up in the proof of the certainty of knowledge. They have begun to shift to seeing about language itself, and have revealed the uncertainty in language.