In a message dated 1/30/2002 6:30:25 PM Central Standard Time, araizen@newmail.net writes:I can see what the distinction might be, but I wonder if there is one {cumki} is about possibility, not probability -- an absolute, not a scalar, for one thing. Also a logical not an empirical notion, except conditionally. Probability is also usually subjective, possibility is only in conditional cases (where the conditions are not spelled out very well). In probability terms, possibility excludes only 0 from the range, so it is neither the weak end or the middle, though rhetorically it tends to be used for the lower side of things (in English with a certain inflection). Certainty is subjective and comparable but not scalar and not empirical. It is, in fact, totally separate (except in idealized observers) either probability or possibility, as most theists and atheists recognize. To the extent that certainty and probability coincide, probability looses its empirical base or certainty becomes less subjective (that is, we misues one concept or the other). I regret I can't come up with a good case of an impossible thing of which someone is certain, but since most things are possible it really is rather hard to do. God does nicely for highly improbable things of which someone is certain, however. Since {la'a} is probably used like "probably" to indicate at least better than .5, someone who held that subjective assessment would almost certainly not have a *strong* doubt about it, but he might well have a doubt about it. |